Simon Arlington

## Biography

Mathew Arlington (brother)

Margot Arlington (Daughter)

Jacob Arlington (Son)

Camellia Arlington (Daughter)

Klara Arlington (ex-wife)

Annalise Arlington (Grandaughter)

Andrew Arlington (Grandson)

Alexander Janssen (Son in law)

Antonio Raverez (Son in law)

Theodore Williams (Son in law)

#### Early life

Simon Michael Arlington was born to Margaret Wilde and James [[Arlington]] on August 30th, 1970, in Chicago, IL 2 years after his oldest and only sibling Mathew Arlington. His father left his mother to raise the two of them on her own upon discovering Margaret was pregnant again. When he was just shy of three years old he and his brother were both taken from his mother and put into the foster care system on the grounds that she had abused and neglected them.

The first memories Simon has are of the time he spent in a crowded 2 bedroom apartment with Mathew and 4 other adults which he considered to be close to strangers. He was forced into 8 different houses within the next 6 years, all of which posed a new kind of stressful living environment. Two things became painfully clear to Simon at a young age; one was that his actions held no relation to any consequence he had ever received, and the other being that there was no such thing as stability. Around the time he turned 8 he was taken to a nice house, at the cost of separating from his brother, for what he didn't know at the time would be another 10 years. Here Simon was the closest to living in a normal household he ever would be, however consequentially to living in such poor conditions and learning how to survive with too little for most of his life his poor behavior, hobbies, and attitude were almost too much for his new parents, Betty and Thomas Brown, to handle. Simon stayed at this house for a total of 3 years, the longest of all the houses he would ever live in the system, going to a private school, excelling in many subjects and developing his musical interest, eventually going so far as to start taking guitar lessons through the school.

For his eleventh birthday he was gifted his very own as well as first acoustic guitar from the Browns, who had talked to Simon about actually adopting him. That same night his biological mother came to his room after he was supposed to be asleep and told him that she was there to take him back home. For years Simon had thought about his brother, wanted to ask questions, but every time he did received no answer, and spent countless nights wondered what his real parents were like, why they hadn't wanted him, why they couldn't live together, and more. His initial excitement in finally meeting her still didn't change that his first reaction was full of hostility her, never having known her at all from his memory, he told her to leave, but never spoke of it to the Browns.Only a week later he wound up talking to her again at a park near his current house which she there convinced him to sit down so she could explain that the reason she wasn't there was because of a misunderstanding and how she had been searching for him and his brother for years. Eventually Simon's biologically mother gave him the ultimatum of either coming with her so they could get his brother and live like a family again or staying where he was, implying that he wouldn't see her again. The demand came with an expiration date to decide, and Simon being the hopeless naive eleven year old he was chose to leave with his mother in the middle of the night to be with his real family, taking with him a bag full of clothes and the guitar he had taken a liking to.

The year and a half to follow he spent with Margaret living in her 63' Buick Riviera, which seemed like a dream at first. They didn't ever stay in one place for too long, hardly changed, showered in public pools or bathrooms whenever they could, and stole and/or tricked people to either appease his mother or to survive, not that Simon had objected much in the beginning. He ignored all of the thoughts he had that told him this wasn't the right way to live for the moments when his mother would tell him about his father or show him pictures she managed to keep of him and his brother when they were little, finding the some sense of belonging he didn't know he wanted and cherishing it above most other things. She even helped steal him a book that he used to help teach him how to play the guitar, which he messed with in his spare time.

They managed to make it to the big apple, New York City, eventually with the promise of both finding his brother and a better life. Simon and his mom stopped at a smaller Mall mart towards the out skirts of the city they had been to several times where he was under the impression they were going to get food but his mom informed him she had no money so he was going to have to steal it for them. The situation was a familiar one and though Simon was a little more annoyed by having to steal than he had been a year ago, he knew he had to and so strode with confidence into the store. Drawing as little attention to himself as possible he stole several different things, including some smaller items he thought they would be able to sale to someone for some pocket money, he almost made it out of the store unnoticed, that is if one of the employees hadn't noticed him who tried to stop him before the door. Luckily Simon had made it out in a full sprint to where his mothers car was supposed to be, directly in front, only to be met with the disappointing realization that she was gone and in her place was a cop car. The owner of the store easily recognized that Simon had stolen from them multiple times and was sentenced 6 months in an underfunded correctional center for boys aged 8-15.

He believed his mom would get him out but instead turned 13 just before he was able to leave and was put into a group home just after where he spent the next 2 years. The last year he was placed into a home with new potential parents, George and Carol Rodgers, as well as four other kids near his age; Joseph and Angela Gutierrez, Treyvon Lawrence, and Benjamin Morris. The adults of this house hold, he quickly found out, were abusive to say the least and cared more about the money they brought in than all 5 of their adopted kids, as they all shared a room in the basement of the home and would often go without meals. The kids were left to their own devices most of the time so long as they attended school and kept out of legal trouble, however there were nights when George would feel particularly influenced by the alcohol he drank and would end up lashing out at the kids. When events like these would occur Joey (Joseph), the oldest of the children, usually intervened to take the beating instead of the other kids. With their choices either being 'home' or out on the streets they found themselves recklessly roaming the city and in some pretty sticky situations.

Not too long after Simon had taken a particular liking to Angie (Angela) and her brother Joey who reminded him of his own brother while Joey saw Simon as a younger one he too had lost over the years.The two had made friends with a Fernando Raverez and began to gradually spend more and more time with him, ultimately leading to the pair going out to parties, getting drunk among other things, and stealing their foster fathers alcohol. This resulted in an incident close to the end of Simons stay with the Rodgers'. One fateful night he had come home from hanging out with a group of friends to grab the alcohol he had previously stashed away and was under the impression he had actually gotten away with it, but instead found most of his belongings, which wasn't much, spread across his bed including the remnants of his one and only guitar now smashed to pieces. In a fury he rushed upstairs picking a fight with George which in any other state of mind he would have been smart enough to know he wouldn't win. Having been creating a plan to leave the house anyway, with all his new siblings, Simon felt more inclined to fight back, knowing Joey had not been there that night to step in if necessary. George may have been an alcoholic and drunk at the time, but Simon was still no match for him when it came down to it. The following morning another argument broke out once light of the previous nights events had been made clear to Joey. In the week that was to come all of the kids went about their lives like nothing had happened, except for the shorter leash they were kept on by George, demanding they come home from school immediately and not leave their collective room until otherwise told. The Friday after the events when Simon, still bruised and beaten down, returned to the house he learned that George had called the Gutierrez's case worker and had them kicked from his house.

Upon turning 15 Simon put plans into motion to leave his foster home while also still looking for his brother, though he had put that adventure more on the back burner. He road his bike into nicer neighborhoods ever day and did odd jobs for locals, being too young and without parent consent for an actual job he settled for under the table. The house he lived in had changed, but the need to leave didn't. He was tired of being tied down by useless adults and didnt want to wait another three years until he was officially an adult.

August 30th 1986 he woke up early for school just like any other day, however it struck him odd that parked across the street there was a deep blue Buick Riviera exactly like the one he and his mother had lived in for some time. It wasnt until he was coming home that same day that he noticed a paper folded and pinned in place by the windshield wiper, yet even still, out of fear of what opening that can of worms would do he continued to ignore the car. After a week went by and car had not once moved Simon couldn't take the curiosity and stormed out to the car,opened the letter on the front of the car, and found that it was after all his mothers car. However she wrote the letter to explain she was giving it to him as some sort of birthday gift. Feeling torn inside he recklessly packed everything he could into the car and left the house without a trace.

#### On His Own

Living in a car on the street was no stranger to Simon at the ripe young age of 16 and it didnt take long for him to build his own routine. Having dropped out of school with the plan to take a GED and never look back at any form of education he spent the little money he had saved on a decent guitar and began to slowly build a band and a name for himself in some of the poorly located clubs and show rooms, while also trying his best to do the side jobs he had set up; however summer was coming to an end which made it alot more difficult to pick up jobs. Winter brought with it a lot of difficulties and by January of the subsequent year he had almost entirely depleted the money he saved for himself. Refusing to resort back to stealing Simon decided to give up prioritizing his musical career as it wasn't yielding any kind of financial results. He applied to work at several different places with low hopes of hearing back since he had no actual address and knew the chances of convincing people to hire him and ignore the legality of getting parental permission was slim. That is until he met a certain particularly kind couple who had just opened a restaurant, the Family Diner, and were in dire need of some help.

In a state of financial crisis and danger lurking around every corner in the city small businesses were dropping like flies where as on the contrary they weren't opening either. Which is exactly why Simon was elated to see the newly opened family Diner. With what little money he had left and every bit of courage he could muster he tried his best to look presentable and keep the fact that he was living in rather unseemly conditions as hidden as possible; however Mark and Maria Janssen, the owners of the newly opened shop, were quick to realize this fact anyway. Upon realizing Simon's living conditions, Maria turned him away, not wanting any negative unwanted attention to her new business mostly due to personal reasons. Feeling quite rejected, especially because he considered this offer to be his best chance he had, Simon argued back with Maria who had given him the bad news only to be kicked from the property by Maria herself once the argument began to get out of hand. Sitting in his car defeated, tired, and hungry, Simon desperately wanted to leave, however after turning the key he discovered that he had ran out of gas and didnt have the funds to get more. He spent the night parked across the street of the diner without dinner, again, until Maria knocked at his window.

The Janssen's noticed Simon's car sitting a crossed the street, thinking he would eventually leave, until they completely finished with their closing responsibilities and he was still there. Maria insisted he came inside and after fighting back a bit as if to save some sort of pride Simon eventually followed her in. The next day he helped the couple around the restaurant, free of charge, as his way of repaying them for staying the night and when they closed he planned on leaving too. It was Mark who stopped Simon this time to talk before he left, giving him the option of not only working for them but also living in the extra bedroom they had. Simon gladly accepted and for the next three years thats exactly what he did. Early mornings now consisting of the three of them prepping the food as well as cleaning the lobby and opening and soon, once Simon felt more settled into the routine of things, Nights were full of practicing with a small group he gathered and on the weekends they picked up gigs around town.

#### Simon in the Wild

how hes been without Adam // meeting his brother again