I have not blogged for a few days since I have been in a slump.
We got a call from a colleague of ours in Florida. He is a PhD researcher who is dedicated and hard working. He is also very quiet in personality. He is small in stature but has a gentleness about him that makes you think of the old fashioned word "gentleman." His wife is a veterinarian and tall and statuesque. They have one of the sweetest little guys for a son. Actually, since we had dinner with them almost five years ago, this little guy is no longer a baby, but probably a schooler. I have never seen such a transformation in this quiet researcher. He actually smiles and gets excited about this son of his. Here is the news...they are still working on fixing the damage to their home from the devastating hurricane season in Florida last year. He has now lost his job. It is not clear what the issue was, because he had a 9 million dollar investor ready to put forward some research money a few years ago. Jobs for researchers at private institutions are tenuous at best. He worked there for almost 10 years. He now has a job at a local community college and is working about 50 hours a week for about $200 take home each week! This is not enough bad luck for them it appears. His wife's partner in their verterinary business has left the state after embezzling everything. The wife is being forced to sell her business to pay the remaining debt! I am sick to the pit of my stomach and keep trying to think of ways to help. I wish I had won the lottery this week.
Then a few days ago L., who is the cleaning woman who works in my office, came to me with the good news that after 10 years of work and thousands of dollars in paper processing (some of which I have helped her with over time), her daughter is going to get a 6-month visa to visit the U.S. L. has not seen her daughter since she left El Salvador when her daughter was only 4 or 5. The girl is now 18! L. is so excited about this and plans to save and send her to a private school to learn English and then to college here. Such enterprising and hard working parents this young woman has. Well, with the good always comes the bad it seems. The daughter has been living with her grandmother all this time. The grandmother has all of her children here in the U.S. A few days ago (probably due to the stress of her grandchild leaving) the grandmother appears to have had a stroke and is now in the hospital. The young girl is, of course, begging her mother to let her stay in El Salvador longer so that she can take care of her grandmother. And L. is so sad that she cannot take time from work to go see her mother in the hospital. Again I wish I had won the lottery.
And you think you have problems. Sorry, better blogging next time.
And I jusst came here from a site where a lady listed 15 things that WENT RIGHT for her yesterday. Seems like the good news ought to be spread around some.
ReplyDeleteSo sad :(. I hate hearing about bad things happening to good people. Hopefully things will take a turn for the better.
ReplyDeleteIt is stuff like this that make me want to kick the crap out of some of these whiners I work with!
ReplyDeleteNever apologize for blogging a bit negatively now and again. I think if we all went about blogging only about the good and positive, we'd be perceived as a bunch of phonies. In real life, there is tragedy.
ReplyDeleteHow unfortunate for your friends and all that they are going through... and to think there is a man today who is pissing and moaning about the fact that his $200,000 per year salary was just cut to $150,000 because of budget cuts at the "non profit" organization that he supposedly directs. Give me a break. Aw, so what does this mean? That he'll have to switch to store-brand coffee for while? I doubt it.