Many of you know, know of, or have had a run in or two with Euro Yank. Over the years, I’ve actually had quite a few conversations with him – found him to be a bit eccentric at times – and often times odd. He is one of those guys that sits behind a computer all day long surfing the Internet and can find a conspiracy around every corner. Sometimes, it makes you wonder and perhaps he may even be right with some of those conspiracies.
This past week I’ve been in constant communication with him. He has a very tragic story that needs to be told and I need others to get this story out there.
Monday evening, Sept 20 2010, while I was playing around on Facebook trying to keep my crops from dying, my mafia rank up, my cafe growing, collecting treasures from my island, cleaning my pet, and building a homestead – I received a text message from Euro Yank – he needed to talk right away. For those of you who don’t know him – he is an American ex-pat living in Luxembourg for the last 10 years. He has had a lot of tragedy in his past. He met a lovely young German national online while he was living in Chicago and taking care of his mother as she was consumed with cancer. After she passed away – this German national came to his rescue – her name – Claudia Reith. She had lived in Luxembourg since the age of 16 and was in the banking industry. She helped him move over and he has lived with her since then.
He asked me for my phone number – I knew this was pretty serious given he was calling me from Luxembourg – it was 12:00am EST – 6:00am his time. He called and told me that his long-time love was dying from throat cancer and that she could pass away any day. He had recently learned that he wasn’t legally registered as a national citizen in Luxembourg. Although he had completed all the necessary paperwork – he learned he was only a registered local citizen in his town and was considered to be on an extended tourist visa. He is an ex-military veteran receiving disability payments. The requirement to be a legal citizen in Luxembourg is to maintain at minimum a 2,000 Euro/month income. His disability that he was receiving from the states didn’t meet that requirement. His long-time girlfriend was pulling in enough per month that combined it enabled him to stay. They never got married. Luxembourg does not recognize common-law relationships.
Apparently, Claudia suffered from a mental break-down about five years ago and has been hospitalized off-and-on over those past five years and then six months ago she was diagnosed with throat cancer. At the time he called me – she was down to 24kg. I don’t know what the conversion is – but – that has to be pretty low. Euro Yank had wanted to marry her, but with all the issues – they never got around to it.
Euro Yank told me that he needed help immediately. He was being deported as soon as she passes away and that he had an appointment to meet with the Red Cross on Wednesday and the Embassy on Thursday. He needed a place to stay in the U.S. and to be able to report that to the Embassy since the Embassy would be shipping him home as soon has his girlfriend died. I told him I would do what I could – but – he would have to understand that since I am a married man with little children – I also had to run it by my wife.
On Tuesday I talked to him again – I didn’t have good news for him as far as a place to stay. The wife took a hard line and didn’t think it would be good to disrupt the kids’ routines with a stranger in the house. To them (and her) Euro Yank was a stranger. I couldn’t convince her either way even after telling her of his story. I apologized to him and told him I could help him find a place to live around here and would provide him with as much information as he could possibly need regarding housing, public assistance, and the VA clinics and administration in my area. He then told me that they were probably going to deport him before she died and that he wouldn’t even be allowed to be by her side when she passed.
He needed immediate action. I told him I would do what I could for him. He had to cut it short because he was on his way to the hospital to be by Claudia’s side. For six months he’s been making that trip daily – staying with her from dawn to dusk – as long as he could. Then he would go home and weep – going in to a deeper depression himself. He reminded me that he had an appointment with the Red Cross and that he would get back in touch with me again later.
I pulled together all the information that I could and put it in an e-mail to him. I got a response back from him via e-mail that he had gotten all the information and there was some of it he could use. I got on to Yahoo Messenger and we chatted some more. If you know Euro Yank – you also know that he is a very strong-willed individual – he can sometimes cause trouble for himself and cause problems for himself as a result. Apparently, he went to the Red Cross that afternoon seeking assistance. He informed me that the Red Cross is actually a pet project and run by the wife of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg and most of the employees are loyalists – essentially, from what he says – the Red Cross there is a front and doesn’t really provide the services and assistance that most are accustomed to for the Red Cross. The person he spoke to told him there was nothing she could do and wouldn’t do anything for him. He informed her that he would be fighting this deportation through an immigrant defense legal group there – and according to him – she called the police and then had the guards escort him out. No sooner had he returned home and he had received notice from the local police that he needed to report to the police station the following day (Thursday).
He told me that he was going to his embassy first before he went to the police station. He pretty much knew at this point he probably would not be returning to his Luxembourg home once he got to the police station. He had little hope that the embassy was going to provide assistance either. Apparently, when he first learned about a month ago that he may be deported he not only called the State Department in the U.S. but also sent them an e-mail looking for assistance. His correspondence was routed to the embassy and he was already labeled a trouble-maker because he was persistent in his requests for assistance – and the state department also said they could do nothing for him. One reason he needed to go to the embassy was because his 10 year renewal on his passport was up. He needed to get a new passport.
He has no family or other friends here stateside that he could come to. At this point I was feeling pretty guilty that I could not do more for him. He informed me that he was given the name of some people in Montenegro through another of his contacts and that perhaps one of them would be able to put him up. But, he needed a passport to be able to travel. He wasn’t even sure if they were going to renew his passport at this point. He then asked if he could call me again.
It was now 1:00am EST Thursday. When I answered the phone he said “How’s it feel talking to a ghost?” I could hear it in his voice – he was pretty much despondent and he was resolved that he would not be returning to his home that day. The harshest of his reality is that over the 10 years he and Claudia lived together – they had amassed a lot of “stuff.” Stereo system, TV, computers, furniture, 10,000 videos, and all that other stuff that couples just end up with. He not be allowed to bring any of it. He has to leave it all behind. She has no one to claim the possessions as she had been disowned by her family. He has no one that can claim it. Essentially – everything he ever owned will be gone. All he will be allowed to leave with is a suitcase with his clothes and whatever other possessions he could put in the traveler.
As he’s telling me this – I’m getting pissed. I can’t believe they would do that to him. These are supposed to be our allies. This man is an American citizen – ex-military on a service related disability – and neither our State Department nor our Embassy there would do anything to assist him. He was there legally – but was never able to be a citizen. He contributed to the community and bought all of his possessions from the community. And..now..he is being kicked out of the country with nothing – and won’t even be able to be by his true-love’s side as she dies. What the fuck is up with that? Even here in America we don’t ship ILLEGALS home under these circumstances. Illegal aliens would be able to stay under compassionate grounds and given temporary visas. This man was in Luxembourg legally.
Euro Yank gave me his full name, social security number, date of birth, and address. I told him I would contact my local congressman and try to get in touch with my senators as well to let them know what was going on. Given that Euro Yank has been out of country for so long – he really had no one stateside to be his representative. I told him I would see what mine could do for him. I didn’t talk to any of them personally, but I was able to retell the story to the aides who took the information. They too said they don’t think there was much that could be done. Supposedly, America doesn’t get in the middle of these types of affairs with other sovereign nations. What bullshit.
Anyway – I haven’t heard back from him at all. I suspect he was right – he probably got deported immediately. His girlfriend will die alone in a hospital. I don’t know if Euro Yank ever got his passport. I don’t know if he got shipped off and dropped off in an unfamiliar city here in the U.S. to fend for himself – or if he was ever able to make it to Montenegro. Either way – what happened to him is bullshit. Keep him in your thoughts and let others know about this. Hopefully, he’ll turn up again somewhere. It may take some time as he will need to find his way to a computer again. Given the little amount he receives on disability – I don’t think buying a new computer and getting Internet access is going to be his priority.
Good luck, Euro Yank – I hope to hear from you again.
