Hello, my name is John Givens. I am the son of Linda and Lambert Givens. I was born in 1977 at St. Francis Hospital in Indianapolis, IN. My biological mother, Linda, is somewhere in Arazona, and my biological father, Lambert, passed away on October 10, 2010 at the age of 58, from complications of COPD.

Lambert and Linda weren’t able to take care of me when I was a baby. They were Hippies and into the drug scene. By the time I was 11 months old, Linda had left and took my 2 sisters with her. I have reconnected with them since, somewhat. Lambert, still on the drugs and not having stable employment, was unable to care for me. My grandmother, Mary Jane Eader, cared much for me, more than I ever realized, and took me from Lambert and had given me to his sister, Cathy and her husband, George.

Cathy and George raised me like their own son. Got me the medical care I desprately needed, provided a roof over my head, clothes on my back, and food in my stomach. They did so much for me, I can never repay that in a life time.

At the age of 17, Cathy finally decided that I needed to know the truth about my past and told me that “Uncle” Lambert was really by father. When I graduated at age 18, just a few days after my 18th birthday, I moved to Indianapolis to live with Lambert, to try to get to know him and have a father-son relationship…but, that didn’t happen. We fought constantly and he drank and smoked marijuana every night in hopes it would ease his pain. By this time, Lambert had developed Gaut and had some symptoms of COPD, and having only one lung (as a result of Motorcycle accident many years earlier) didn’t help things.

Eventally, things got worse and I decided to move out. After that, I only saw Lambert at Family Functions, at least ones that I bothered to attend.

In January of 2000, George passed away due to a massive heart attack. He was dead on arrival at the Hospital in Danville, KY, 40 miles from where the attack happened. There used to be a Hospital in Liberty, KY, but it has closed several years earlier and was just, more or less, a day clinic. Liberty was only 15 miles away. Had the city not closed it’s hospital, he may have still been alive, but you never know. He will be missed.

I never realized a number of things until I had gotten older, and wiser. Now, looking back, sure, I have regrets, but I know that I cannot change the past. Now, I live out my days working, watching TV, and sleeping. I have a girlfriend named Stacey, her and I have been together for almost 5 years as of this writing.

I have found various things out, not just about my past, but my family’s history. I have found that the Givens family descended from Ireland and moved to America in the 1880′s, about the time of the Potato Famine in Ireland. We were from County Antrim, on the northern end of Ireland, in a province called Ulster, now under British Control. Antrim is home to lush green fields and a natural wonder knows as the Giant’s Causeway, a phenomenon caused by volcanic activity.

I have found that I suffer from some mental disorders that run in my family in one form or another, causing the capacity for great depression. Clinically, I have been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, which is an umbrella disorder that covers things like Bipolar Disorder, Antisocial Personality Disorder, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Paranoia, and many others. A Person that is diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder generally has a few symptoms from any number of the other disorders, but not enough in any one to be labeled that disorder. I know that I have some symptoms of Bipolar, Antisocial, OCD, Paranoia, and ADD.