“Charles and Mary both was doing it, but then they got arrested last night and I got nobody now, I’m just stuck here,” she said.
She is 500lb Chattanoogan Peggie Johnson. By “doing it,” she was referring to being taken care of by her husband Charles and daughter Mary. They got arrested for neglect. Apparently not feeding a 500lb woman who needs constant care is neglect, wheras I would think that feeding someone that fat would be neglectful by itself.
Anyway, Peggie came to WRCB TV’s attention when the best thing they could highlight on their newscast was Peggie’s need for an extra wide door to her home. “I was so happy when my new door went in and Charles even helped work on the door and everything, and so I could have a new life and I could go out and do things and we can go places and that, and now this.”
This is a sad situation, and as Peggie said, she “got nobody now.” But since this is my blog and I got the story from Fark and it happened in Tennessee, you know that things get weirder.
But that isn’t the whole story. Peggie’s comments have a true double meaning. “Charles and Mary both was doing it.” Yes. That “doing” and that “it”. The two are charged with incest, in addition to the neglect related charges.
Paging Mr. Springer, Mr. Jerry Springer.
You make a good point with your comment about neglect. When people become so overweight that they cannot leave their bedrooms, that means that somebody is feeding them. Though perhaps it doesn’t rise to the level of criminal, such behavior is absolutely contemptible. I’d love to read an article or see a documentary about the people who enable this level of obesity.
I did once see part of a TV show where a handful of men desparately wanted to be married to obese, immobile women. They encouraged them to eat and not exercise.