The Happy Couple (PODCAST EXCLUSIVE EPISODE)
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What happened to the paramedic on July 4th, 2018?
On July 4th, 2018, a paramedic was hurrying through a hospital in England when a supervisor flagged him down looking very concerned. She asked him if he had been one of the paramedics on a very specific call a few days earlier. Surprised, the paramedic said yes. The call had been completely typical, so he didn't really understand why this particular call mattered so much. But the instant he confirmed he had been there, his supervisor said she would explain in a minute, but for right now, he had to take off all of his gear, like all of it, right now. Because there was a chance that what he was wearing could kill him. So if you're a fan of the strange, dark, and mysterious delivered in story format, then you've come to the right show because that's all we do.
So if that's of interest to you, please sneak into the Follow Buttons house and remove all of their outlets and replace them with blank plates. Okay, let's get into today's story.
On the afternoon of June 29th, 2018, a 44-year-old woman named Dawn Sturgis sat on a blanket in a park in Salisbury, England, drinking some wine with a few friends and her boyfriend Charlie Rowley. It was Dawn's favorite way to spend a Friday, especially since it involved Charlie. So they'd been dating for 16 months and she was completely in love with him, primarily because Charlie was truly like the lone bright spot in Dawn's otherwise really difficult life. So Dawn was an alcoholic who had struggled with an undiagnosed case of bipolar disorder for years. And so she had a hard time finding work. And for the last two years, she'd actually lived in a therapeutic group home. But it was a little after she had moved in there that she had very fortunately met Charlie.
Now, on paper, Don and Charlie did not seem like they would be good for each other. Charlie was addicted to heroin, he also didn't have a job, and he was frequently in trouble with the law. And so when they first got together, people in Don's life worried that Charlie ultimately was just going to pull her down even further into her own problems. But they did make each other really happy. And so they spent basically all of their time together, going between each other's apartments and visiting the park and hanging out with their friends. And for Dawn, this taste of happiness had made her want to make some positive changes in her life. Now, she still drank alcohol, but she finally got her bipolar disorder diagnosed and properly medicated.
And she was feeling stable for the first time in years. She was even planning to move out of that group home and into a new apartment soon and hope that, you know, that would give her a chance for a true fresh start. And because of all these changes, Dawn had planned a get-together with her family to show them how well she was doing. It was in a few days, and she'd really wanted Charlie to come with her since their relationship, at least in her mind, was a huge reason she'd been so motivated to turn this corner. Except, despite how much she adored Charlie and really was excited for her life with him, at the current moment as they sat in the park on this Friday, she actually was really mad at him.
So before arriving at the park, Charlie and their friends had done some heroin and some other drugs. And being under the influence of these substances was making Charlie act like a total jerk. Dawn had just bought some new hair dye to give herself a new look for this get-together with her family. And now Charlie, high on drugs, was wasting it by putting it in his beard and his eyebrows as a joke. And so Don ultimately was really mad, not so much because he was wasting the dye, but because by dyeing your beard and eyebrows and all that, that Charlie was going to look like a total deranged mess when he met her family for the first time in a few days. And so when she expressed her concerns to Charlie, he did go and wash out the dye from his face and he got most of it out.
But even after, Don still felt just so annoyed by the whole thing. It's like he knew how important this meeting with her family was going to be.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
What happened to the paramedic on July 4th, 2018?
0:00–5:23
2
Who were Dawn Sturgis and Charlie Rowley?
5:23–9:11
3
What challenges did Dawn face in her life?
9:11–13:23
4
How did Dawn and Charlie's relationship impact their lives?
13:23–24:15
5
What led to Dawn's sudden health crisis?
24:15–34:23