When life gives you lemons, blog about it.
Have you ever heard the expression, "A Good Deed Never Goes Unpunished." That saying did not carry any meaning for me until recently. For the past fourteen months, my boyfriend and I have been housing a family of three. We met the Clark family when they were living in an apartment a few miles away from our condo. At that time, the husband/father did not have a job, and the wife/mother was preparing for the third and last round of surgery to correct the nerves in her feet. As a result, they were on the brink of losing their place due to lack of funds for paying the rent. We took pity on them and said that they could stay with us for a few days which turned into weeks-months-one year. We should have gotten a clue when they started bringing bags and boxes of belongings into our home.
After five months of hemming and hawing and empty promises of finding work, the husband landed a job at a local service station. That job lasted for a few months until he was fired for not showing up to work on time. He then filed for unemployment, which turned out to not be a substantial amount of money. On July 1st, I put my foot down and said that they would have to be out by August 1st if they could not come up with enough money to pay for one month's rent. You might think I was being too stringent; however, they were notorious for not paying us rent. Every so often, I would receive bits and pieces of money from them totaling about $200-$300 a month. Some months, I just received empty promises of intentions to pay.
This is a family that thrives on pity from poor saps like us. After lodging with us for several months, they managed to garner sympathy from a neighbor of mine, a few doors down from my condo. It was their cute little Chihuahua that drew her into their web. She was in the midst of losing her third dog, so she took a strong liking to their little pooch. That turned into giving the family food and gifts, money, and transportation.
As of this date, neither the husband nor the wife have procured employment. They still pour out empty promises of upcoming interviews and potential jobs opening up for them. Back in the summer when I told them that they would have to leave my home for lack of rent, they exclaimed with much angst that they could not go to the homeless shelter because of the bed bug epidemic. Another warning sign that my beau and I should have heeded was that the husband's mom lives a few miles away, and she would not let them move in with her. Apparently, she and her son (the husband/father in our home) fight like cats and dogs.
It is unfortunate, that our kindness has come back to bite us in the -you-know-what. In Robert Frost's poem "Mending Wall," he wrote "Good Fences Make Good Neighbors. " The moral of the story is to show kindness with parameters set in place so that the recipients of your kindness cannot take advantage of you.
There are people out there who legitimately go through hard times and need a "hand-up." I am will and able to help people in these types of situations. However, people cross the line when they demand "hand-outs.
Do you remember the movie "Betelgeuse." The ghost couple were trying to drive the live residents out of their home. Their plan to scare them backfired because the people did not take their attempts seriously. Out of frustration, they resorted to calling out the name Betelgeuse three times in order to get some help with driving out their pesky inhibitors.
Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse where are you? I need your help. Hey I can choose to laugh or cry about the situation. I'd rather take the humorous approach.
