Hi,
My name is Pam and I am a 48 year old mother of three. All grown thank the good lord. I have a new granddaughter who is 8 weeks old. I have been involved with writing to a man in prison on death row for about 5 years now. It is too long a story to bore everyone with so I will just say that I was not expecting to have any kind of feelings for this man but friendship. Boy, was I wrong. It has been a long hard 5 years and even though we are no longer involved in a relationship of that nature, he still has my heart :cuffs: in his hands. I will always love him and try to be there for him.
At present time I am writing to several inmates, all but one are death row inmates. These guys need all the love and attention that they can get. Some never have any visitors, get mail from anyone and never have any hope or encouragement to help them get thru the day to day life in the hell hole that they are in. So I applaud anyone who takes the time to write to them to let them know that someone cares. Soraya, you are something else, writing to 40 and holding down a job also. I am impressed.
Well, I am not going to bore anyone to tears tonight so hello all and thanks for making it possible to be a part of a bunch of caring people. :D

WElcome to the group Pam...I have been reading some writings by Paul Collella (think that is his last name) and this has totally changed my view of the death penalty...I am planning on writing him a letter because he has truly touched my heart (non-romantically)...anyways Welcome! It is nice that you write and care for inmates!

Amelia

I too am glad your found us! Welcome!

Hey thanks for welcoming me :) I have read some and heard alot about Paul and I think he has changed a lot of peoples views on the death penalty. Got a question for you all? Have you ever went to the prodeathpenalty.com's message board? You would not believe some of the views those people have. It is awful how some people feel. Again thanks.

Am going to try this and pray that it works. :D

What a precious little thing!!! Makes me want another one--( haha just kidding I have enough with my 5) thanks for sharing her with us!!

I have just spent at least an hour bringing myself up to speed with Paul's case.. Wow.. Ignorance sux.. I'm on this!

David

PS. Beutiful kiddo, Pam!

Oh what a cute little baby!! I am feeling all clucky ... again!!!!

Pam....
Welcome to PTO and thanks for sharing your story and beautiful grandbaby with us all!! :)

Pam- welcome, and your grandaughter is precious!! What is her name? As a mom of six daughters, i am definately partial to little girls....

sherri

Thank you all. The baby's name is Amy Lee Gooden. :) Nana's angel sent straight from heaven.

Pam, welcome to PrisonTalk. We are lucky to have you join us. I am Tracy and I live in Florida.

I think the fact that you write to men on death row is admirable. They need all the friends they can get.

What a beautiful granddaughter you have. I hope my first grandchild is a girl. It's due 9/15/02, and I can hardly wait.

Again, welcome.

Thank you Tracy, so very much. Congratulations on you up coming grandchild. Perhaps it will be a girl. When you find out be sure to let us know. 9/15 is not that far off. Believe me the time will fly by, or it did for us. Again Thanks.

Pam, I realize I haven't welcomed you. So a welcome from me too. I'll answer your email about Darrell asap. Kinda busy jobhunting. The baby is gorgeous. I hope to talk to you soon on MSN messenger!

Welcome Pam. I can see from all that I have read so far you are going to be a great asset to this place. That is what I like about being here, we all have different backgrousn and different situations and can contribute to so many things. What one might not know, another will.

Again...welcome

Joy

that is so true, Joy, I have learned so many things since I've been here. Both useful information as how to handle emotions and certain situations that occur.

Hi, I'm writing from Australia where, thankfully, we don't have the death penalty. You must be an admirable woman to write to prisoners on Death Row. I think that would be so emotionally draining. But so very important at the same time. What would you do if you were asked to attend an execution? Some of these guys don't even have a friend with them at their final hour. I think it's heartbreaking.

you have a good point there, something I have been asking myself also a hole lot of times. I'm so against the death penalty. Plus I think it would be very very hard to see a person strapped down to a table and being killed by the state. But I think I would do it. Just to give my friend a friendly face to look at in his last minutes. Because all the people that are sitting there (most of them probably) have hateful feelings against him and don't show any compassion. I just know, if I know I was going to die, I would like a friendly face to look at in my last moments, a face of someone I know who cared about me and stood by me in hard times. I think it's very hard to die and knowing there's nobody that will miss you....

thanks everyone.

Hello Pam,and welcome.Sorry it took me so long to get here.I want to thank you for reading Pauls writings.He is an amazing person,as are all on the row fighting for their humanity.God Bless...........................................Sp encer

welcome to pto sorry the delay in my post. You granddaughter is beautiful.. You are going to bring some very real issues to the table and give us some info that is needed.. Spencer is also a very big help in the death row area. I have an interest in it and like to help when I can.. So again welcome...

Hello Everyone and thanks again for the warm welcome. I would like to touch on a few things here that have been posted. The posts by cobwebqueen has some good questions in it. So I will say that the subject of my attending an execution has already came up. I talked to Danny, (Man I was visiting) about it and told him that if he would allow me to be there I would. Because I can not stand the thoughts of him being killed/dying there alone. I know that physically he will not be alone as there will be people in the room with him and then the witnesses, but my meaning for that is alone as in NO ONE there will love and care about him and I dont want the last faces he sees to be the faces of people who hate him and want him to die.
It is very heartbreaking to think of some of the things that these people have to endure. I know Lt. Governor Steve Windom, made statements in his last campaign that he would take all the cable tv out of the prisons and take the weight rooms away from the inmates and tht he would see that they had not Air Conditioners and stop inmate access to computers. Thing about this is, the prison I was going to , their weight room was a set of rusty weights that sat out in the middle of the open yard. Cable tv for death row inmates consisted of a set of rabbit ears for an antenna. They were not allowed out of their cells except for about 45 mins, two or three times per week. The air conditoner is what really done it in for me. Death Row inmates had to set on floor and pour cool water on themselves to keep from having a heat stroke.
I called the man on it and told him that I wanted to know where this prison was that had all this stuff, because I knew 24 Death Rown inmates that would love to go there. Never even replied.
It is hard to write to inmates that are on death row. I met so many of them though when I was going to visit Danny I seriously feel like they are a part of my life. Thank you for considering me admirable

Pam, guess these people make those announcements to keep the crowd calm and to keep them stupid as far as what's going on in prison?

Pam:

Here is my belated welcome to you. I too am an advocate against the Death Penalty..... I belong to a local branch of The People of Faith Against the Death Penalty along with Amnesty International and NC Cure.

I know of so many people who have been executed in the last few years that really should not have been. This is a very bad situation. Illinois Governor has just issued a law for a Moritorium on the Death Penalty. If we can get other States to continue to do the same, maybe we can get it stopped here in the US.

Thanks for comming to us. We will appreciate your insite and help.

Donna

PAM-THE WORLD NEEDS MORE PEOPLE LIKE YOU-THANKS FOR CARING AND GIVING OF YOURSELF SO UNSELFISHLY

Thank you all for your kind and caring words.