A True Story About My Experience With The Leno Family

Again, please understand that this is just a simple web page that will tell you about my 6 month long personal experience with eight members of the Leno family. As before, note that it is just my personal experience and my own feelings.
I have decided to do this page as sort of a tribute to a man by the name of Tim Leno, whose problems and ultimatly his untimely death began the experience.

I would also like to say that while this page talks about the Leno's, it is a huge family. Therefore this story has nothing to do with many members of the family that I have never met; especially it's most visible and famous member. This story talks only about nine individuals, eight of them closely related with Tim Leno.
Part of the reason I am doing this page is that Tim would have wanted the truth to be told and would most certainly not be happy with the way that one member (Christina) of his family has behaved.

I would also like to say that while I never got to meet Tim, I felt through this whole ordeal that I had a spiritual bond with him and I know in my heart that if I had met him under different circumstances, we would have been good friends. He clearly was an awesome man with a big heart.

The cast of characters (so to speak):

1. Tim Leno
2. Christina Leno (Tim's wife)
3. Dione Fernandez (Tim's daughter)
4. Adam Leno (Tim's son)
5. Bob Leno (Tim's brother)
6. Arlie Leno (Tim's dad)
7. Terry Leno (Tim's brother)
8. Sharon Leno (Tim's sister)
9. Leonard "Sinjin" Anterola (Dione's husband)

The Story:

Christina Leno is my ex-wife. I had not heard from her in over 5 years and we had been divorced for 9 years when I answered the phone one day (September 8th, 2006) and Christina was on the other end. Initially, she said that she was simply thinking of me and wanted to know how I was doing. Of course, this came as a very big surprise to me because she had never really demonstrated any real caring as to how I might be doing before. But because I was curious, I drew her out. The truth was that she was the one that was not doing well. Tim had apparently run afoul of the local sheriffs office in Bremerton, WA. This was not really anything that he had done wrong but was due to some very nasty neighbors and an over zealous sheriff's office who clearly had no understanding of what certain natural herbal remedies could do for a person who is suffering from severe chronic pain.

Christina was pretty upset and seeking help as Tim was apparently pretty depressed and was acting very strangely. He was having a lot of paranoid ideations and was concerned that the federal government was going to come take everything he owned away and put him in jail for a long time. Most of his family was trying to reason with him but nothing seemed to help. Initially of course, I was just hearing all of this from Christina.

Christina had not informed any of the family that she had contacted me and up until the evening of Cotober 14th, 2006, Christina and I talked almost every day by phone. We also met twice. Once in Portland and once in Seaside. There were lot's of moments that I suspected that things were not well in her marriage to Tim but as I still cared about her and wanted to help as much as I could in what seemed to be a time of difficulty, I kept my feelings to myself. However, I can remember thinking that Christina was sure being pretty friendly when she joined me in the hot tub in my room at Seaside in a very skimpy bikini but again, I kept my thoughts to myself.

Everything changed late in the afternoon of October 14th, 2006 when my cell phone rang and a very upset Christina had just returned home and found Tim dead by his own hand. She seemed very distraught. All I could do was try to calm her down as best as I could. I immediatly packed a small bag and departed for Bremerton, WA, a three hour drive.

When I arrived at Christina & Tim's house in Bremerton three hours later, Christina was remarkably calm considering she had just found her husband dead. In attendance was Tim's father Arlie, his brother Terry, and Terry's wife. For me, the situation was very surreal. Everybody wanted to stay and keep Christina company through the night but she insisted that she just wanted me to stay. While at this time I did not think much about this, in retrospect it is now very understandable. Everybody was friendly considering the trauma they were going through but clearly they all wondered what I was doing there. And so they all left, leaving Christina and I alone.

Eventually it was clear that Christina needed to sleep. So I tried to settle her into a bed and went to lay down in a room close by. She would have none of that. She wanted to be "held". I remember thinking that this made sense in a way... nobody would want to feel alone after such a trauma, but at the same time it held an element of what had driven us apart... that it was always about Christina and her needs. But I complied and despite it being a very long and tearful night, I felt glad that I was able to help her through it.

The next 24 hours were primarily spent with me making sure that Christina got the basic's done... like eating and sleeping. I also met Dione and Sinjin briefly when they came down the hill from the adjoining property that Tim and Christina owned. And I talked to both Arlie and Terry on the phone when they called to see how Christina was doing. At the time I did not think about it much but looking back a comment that Arlie made to me sure now hits home... that Christina was "a very private person who is difficult to get to know".

The next 10 days were a whirlwind for me. I pretty much ignored everything else in my life and just stayed in Bremerton helping Christina keep it together. I did it all. Cooked for her, made phone calls for her, talked to the lawyers, talked to the coroner's office and the mortuary (even initially paid the thousand dollar cremation fee), and continued to comfort her. And it was also during this time that I really became aware that I still held some pretty deep feelings for her. But there were signs that despite her saying she had changed over the years, that the world still revolved around her. However, I was caught up in being the "good" person and chose to ignore these warning signs.

And so I continued to pretty much live in Bremerton through January 2007 when Christina was able to sell the house she was living in and rented a house in Vancouver, WA. Many things happened during this time. I got to know the people above a bit, Christina and I talked and decided to give our relationship another go and became intimate again (early November), Tim's first (October 28th - go here for picture's) and second (Sunday October 29th - go here for picture's) memorial service's happened, and Christina accompanied myself and my family to Belize for Christmas. By the end of January I had pretty much single handedly moved her to Vancouver. The toll it took on myself was tremendeous. I spent a lot of time on the road, lived through wrecking my car as a result of hitting a deer at 70 mph while coming home from Bremerton one rainy evening, and spent a lot of my own money to help Christina. I remember telling myself at the time that it was all going to be ok when she had gotten to a point in her healing where it would not always be about her.

It was also during these months that I noticed that I was "tolerated" by members of Tim's family that I came in contact with even though they were not unfriendly. I also became very aware that there was no real love lost between Dione and Christina. In fact, it was not long before Christina began to tell me all sorts of horrible things about Dione. According to Christina, Dione was a "user" who had taken all she could get from her father and cared only for herself. At the time, I did not say anything to Dione as it was not my place. After all, I was there to support Christina. And at that point I believed she was speaking the truth.

Thus, as time went on and I fell back deeper and deeper in love, I missed most of the warning signs. I saw but did not heed the problems beginning to surface between Christina and Dione/Adam about the upper property that was suppose to go to Tim's grandkids. Instead I supported Christina's postion that it was her's to do with as she pleased. And while initially she publicly claimed she would sell it and split it three ways, privately she confided to me that she had no intention of ever letting Dione have anything. This she was adament about. There was a lot of hatred and dislike for the Leno family displayed to me by Christina and while I again realized as I had during the 7 years I was married to her that she really had no one close to her deep in her heart, I did not stop my help and reason it through.

And so, ultimatly in February 2007, shortly after Christina had tried to hurt Dione by contacting the Washington State Child Protective Services and giving them false information about Dione's treatment of her children, Dione and Adam started a lawsuit not only challanging the ownership of the other piece of property but contesting Tim's mental state back on September 18th 2006 when he Quit deeded the two properties to Christina.

Meanwhile, while Christina was living in Vancouver and I in Portland, I was typically sleeping at her house and trying very hard to develop a loving relationship with her. While I really loved her (go here for a webpage that spoke of my feelings at the time), it was getting to be pretty one sided and was not really going very well. What became clearer to me almost every day was that Christina had not changed very much internally... she was still all about herself. When she gave, something always had to come back to her. But still, for awhile, I continued to help her. I found a lawyer for her. I read the depositions given by the Leno's. I wrote letter's for her. I talked to the lawyer and helped Christina to understand it all. I hid the Marmot sleeping bags for her when she lied to her lawyer and said they were peed on by her cats and she had to throw them away. Almost anything Christina asked, I did.
And then...

... one day, when Christina and I had disagreed about several points in the lawsuit (I wanted her to tell the truth), I came home and sent an email to Dione asking her to "be family" and stop this stupid lawsuit stuff. This was the first time I had directly said anything to any of the Leno's. All other communication had been through Christina. Dione responded and at first she was angry. So I responded back and we began to talk.

This is the point where I started to wake up. In fact, it was a very quick and rude awakening. All of the things that I had been sensing became real. What became completely clear and was verified and proven so many ways was that Christina's marriage was not going well at all. In fact, it was on the verge of divorce. I learned that Christina had behaved with Tim and his family much as she had with myself and my family. But the truth that hurt even more was that Christina was simply "using" me to get things done so that she could move on and find another "victim" (my perspective).

The last time I saw Christina was on April 8, 2007 when I confronted her with what I had learned. Her response was to turn away. For me, this confirmed everything. While I am aware she has found a new lover and has moved on, at least I can look back and find a sense of satisfaction that even though I was used and played for a fool, I did help another human being get through a hard time. While I am not particularly "religious" (oddly enough, Christina claims to have a "belief" in God), I do believe she will face judgement someday and will have to accept responsibility for her past actions. Additionaly, I got to meet some great people in the Leno family and finally find out that all of what Christina told me about them were simply lies. They are good people. And of course, they got to know the true me and not the person that Christina had told them I was.

It was quite a ride but I am way glad it is over...

And so, for those of you that have read to the end of this narrative, I say good job and thank you. I will now bid you farewell with wishes for all the best in your life and a song (here) that got me through so many tough times with Christina.

If you happen to meet her in real life, all I can say is watch your back....
And as for her new "love", I feel for you bro....

Peace.