People Will Take Advantage…Be Kind Anyway

My Mom was all about kindness and helping where she could. My Daddy was all about trust, but verify. Apparently I am more Phyllis than Mike. I’m learning I can be kind, but I also must verify.

Kindnesses taken advantage of to date…that I’m aware of:

*Bags and bags of artificial flowers and greenery promised to be used at the cemetery with the change of the season. Maybe used once late last November or December.

*A Ford Escape…the title was never changed…and it has been subsequently totaled. Unfortunately for her/them because she didn’t have a title with her name on it she couldn’t get any of her belongings out of the car. She called me for help…nothing I could do…she had all the paperwork.

*Bags and bags of clothes…who knows if they were worn or sold. I do know she wore the puffer hooded coat I gave her.

*A sewing machine to be used to help make pillowcases for Children’s Hospital…again…who knows…

*Tools and huge wheeled toolboxes…I only said take a few that you can use in your work…they took all

*A washer…that was to have been paid for prior to picking it up…hmmm, still waiting on payment and the washer is MIA. The dryer she badgered me about needing is still there!

*A drop leaf antique table…why? Because they could.

*An outdoor rocking chair…from inside the sunroom…again, because they could.

*A portable rotisserie oven…say it with me…because they could.

*An antique trunk…yep, because they could.

*Crafting supplies…from inside the house…they used a ladder to climb in a window…I could still smell her stink in that room.

*Not one but 2 sets of sterling flatware…because they could.

*Some Sterling serving pieces…those were left in a bucket in the sunroom to be gotten at a later date. Sorry, my cousin, Kel has possession of them now.

*Bottles of water…but only the smaller bottles…they left the gallon jugs…why?

*A table saw from the barn…every time we were there or my cousin was there..the barn would be unlocked…after having been locked the previous trip. Hmmmm…

I am sure there are a lot of other things that they helped themselves to…but at this point…it really doesn’t matter or make them any less thieves.

I think what hurts me the most is they broke my trust during an incredibly difficult time in my life. I/we trusted, but didn’t verify that they were actually mowing every two weeks as agreed upon…and the exact time period she would say she had just mowed at Mom’s and request payment…which was immediately sent. Thanks to my cousin going to check on the house we found out she hadn’t been mowing for months…and had made entry into the house illegally…yes, the sheriff came out, took fingerprints…unfortunately they weren’t good enough to identify they perpetrator. But, because of her very distinct body odor, I KNOW beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was her.

In the last couple of weeks, I have had to make peace with the fact that I/we were taken advantage of by someone my Mom and I had trusted. Thankfully she did not take any of the few remaining things I wanted to pick up. All that she took were just things…I truly hope one day she/they will realize what they have done is wrong as get their lives together…I’m not holding my breath…I’m just going to wish them well and move forward…and thank them for a lesson learned…be kind, trust, BUT VERIFY!

Peace to you and yours!

lp