Tennessee Sadness, No Really!

[MikeC]

A 500-pound Chattanooga woman's caretakers are behind bars. Channel Three first told you about 52 year old Peggie Johnson last month when Channel Three help highlight her need to install a larger door in her home. Now, Peggie's story takes a sad turn. Johnson's husband and her daughter are in jail.

Everyone was excited for Peggie when she got that new door, now she faces yet another challenge. Because Peggie is so heavy, she needs someone to take care of her 24 hours a day.

Police say Peggie's husband and daughter were neglecting her by not feeding her or keeping her clean. When those allegations came to light, police discovered an even more disgusting twist.

"No, I don't want to be neglected, I don't want to be sitting in my own urine, my own waste," Johnson said. At more than five-hundred pounds, Peggie Johnson relies on family and friends to care for her. "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.

Peggie says taking care of her can be a lot of work and her husband Charles, and daughter Mary may have just had enough. "I wish Charles wasn't in there, I wish Charles could come back and do like he's supposed to and help me get out of this bed like he promised and be here for me and help me," she said.

Charles Johnson and Mary Alice Nichols are charged with willful abuse, neglect and exploitation of an adult. "I depended on him a whole lot and no I don't want him in jail and I depended on him and I hate to know what happen, but the officer said he just wasn't going to keep letting it go on and on and on," Johnson said.

On top of the neglect, the two are charged with incest for apparently having sex, Peggie says that's the most painful part. "It's just sad and it hurts so bad for what's happened and what's been going on, and I really don't know the words to say," she said. Now, the news of the arrests, put a damper on Peggie's hopes for a new life. "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," she said.

Johnson and Nichols will both be in a Hamilton County court on Friday facing their two charges. If you're wondering what classifies incest, Tennessee state law says step-parents and even adopted parents can be charged with incest, even though they are not blood relatives.

 

[dj]

it's a sad world sometimes

 

[peg4x4]

if ya can't get out of bed,somebodys gotta be feeding you to keep that much weight on......just feed her 1000calories a day,then she can get up andtake care of herself!!!

 

[CUZ]

There's a lot of things in this old world I don't understand and a 500 pound person that can't care for themselves is one of them. When she hit 500 did she suddenly say - I need help to get up? And is the house part of the Krispy Kreme delivery guys route? I know when your metabolism slows down it is hard to lose weight but do you have to keep packing it on? As far as the rest of the story, people will be people and unfortunately some people are pond scum.

Cuz

 

[Herefordcross]

Believe it or not people, there are people with other health problems that can cause these problems. My grandmother who was always an active woman had her hips replaced at 41, when it was done at the mayo clinic in Minnesota she was the youngest person ever in the country to have a double hip replacement, after 20 years that went bad and her shoulders too, thus limiting her mobility and the diabetes came along and they wouldn't replace her hips until her blood sugar could be regulated on a consistent basis, so in that time period of lesser mobility she started gaining weight, now her liver is shot from the diabetic medication and her hips are shot and her shoulders as well. Some things can't be helped they just stack on top of the existing problems. About two months ago she was diagnosed with dimentia and it's sad to see. If you ask anyone that has known her for twenty years if they ever thought it could happen to her they would have said no! So in saying this don't be too quick to judge others because of weight, etc. You don't know what you or your family members could end up having that would cause such problems, it may be me one day, who knows. I could easily go from my little 180lbs. to 500 and not be able to help it at all. It is a lot of stress and work to take care of someone as big as she is and it's worse when they don't even know who you are anymore.

As far as the incest goes, that's just plain sick!

 

[CUZ]

H-C, you have my total sympathy. It's been a little less than a year since I got through taking care of Dad so I agree with you about we never know what may be coming down the road ahead of us. Now as far as the weight thing, I said I didn't understand it and made a crack about doughnuts, so maybe I should have said I didn't understand it and let it go at that. I stand corrected.

Cuz

 

[peg4x4]

No,you never know...tryed to take care of Mom and Dad,she had Parkinsons,he,deminita..He'd get his hoe and go off,I'd leave to find him,come back and Mom would be on the floor..the Dr had her on blood thiners so kept telling me not to let her hit her head..My brother showed up at the door with a van,packed them up and took them to Fort Worth!!(his at that time wifes idea),so I only got to see them once more before they died.. No,no hard feelings between brother and I..

 

[john250]

H-C, you have my total sympathy. It's been a little less than a year since I got through taking care of Dad so I agree with you about we never know what may be coming down the road ahead of us. Now as far as the weight thing, I said I didn't understand it and made a crack about doughnuts, so maybe I should have said I didn't understand it and let it go at that. I stand corrected.

Cuz

I'll take your back, cuz.
The morbidly obese have my sympathy.
There are lots of medical conditions which can cause this to happen.
But the most common cause is Coca Cola and Frito Lay and Krispy Kreme.
They need to enjoy some good lean beef with a glass of cold ice water and a bisket and a garden salad.
The gal who ballooned to 500 LB LAYING IN BED probably had some mental disorder. Same as the street person with a bottle of Thunderbird. Throw in the incest and I'd bet my last Marlboro on that scenario.

And we don't work as hard physically as our grandparents did.

Walking fences always kept me lean.

 

[CUZ]

Thanks J250. And you're right we don't work as hard as our grandparents. They worked out in the field and the garden most of the day came in and maybe ate a humongous supper and didn't gain weight. I can remember my PaPa mixing up a bowl of molasses with butter and eating it on 2 or 3 biscuits after lunch, and believe me he did not have a weight problem.

Cuz

 

[chrisy]

I know what it is like to have a weight problem, have just shed about, 7.5 stone (14lbs to a stone) so you can work it out, need to go about another 3 stone to be at ideal weight, it has not been easy it has taken a lot of excersise and will power, but it is true if you are sedentry and lay about on the couch all day what do you expect. If you get that big that you can't look after yourself, and you have not got mental issues or illness, it is no ones fault but your own, you don't have to eat all that is given to you, and the person feeding you is a bit to blame as well for giving you so much. I don't mock anyone that is big but a lot of times it is your own fault, in loading in to many calories, and not getting them burned off.
The lady in the story did not seem to have mental problems, just weight issues, it is not fair to rely on your husband and child to look after you this way, she should do something about loosing the weight and helping herself. there seems to be a lot of it about in the US from which I have seen on the TV. as for the other twist that is just sick.

 

[dj]

maybe he was a feeder, if so the daughter will be like that in no time.

 

[chrisy]

maybe he was a feeder, if so the daughter will be like that in no time.

poor thing if he is, those guys are sick. :x saw one guy on TV that got his wife upto 800lbs and she let him do it, he took videos of her in all kinds of perverse ways and she thought it great, they used to post them on the internet, very sad. he was real upset when the Dr got a court order to say she had to go into hospital, and loose weight or else she would have died. They stayed together but she would not go down past 200lb or else he would have left her, I don't call that love. that's abuse. but I suppose it takes all sorts to make the world go round.