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I live in a communal househould where some of us are involved with others and others not so much. Two things have happened in the last week that relate to my title. The first is that a friend of one of my housemates lost a roof over her and her toddler's head due in part to some stupid moves on her part but also due to living just too close to the edge. One of my partners offered to let her move in to one of his rental homes for a few weeks. She and her child have stayed out here for the last couple of days because the water in the rental home was accidently turned off (the landlord has ADD, bless his heart). She jumped right in to help around the house and her son jumped right into checking out my child's toys. My child has autism so he tends to have toys for kids much younger than himself and the little guy was thrilled. These last couple of days, the mom and I have been tag team mothering these two and actually mother in very similar ways. So, after conferring with the rest of the family, I've offered her a part time nanny position and she and her child will stay with us. So now she has a roof over her and her childs head, we have childcare help for our special needs child and we may all possibly gain another two community members.
Second situation : a young lady who has been staying in one of our trailers rent free so that she could get on her feet after a move from Georgia has been starting to integrate as a family member. She is polite and neat and contributive to the atmosphere of cooperation and as a bonus, one of my partners and her just hit it off romantically. It's so sweet to watch. The last week though, she has been terribly sick, probably a virus but possibly strep throat. She just started working for Walgreens but doesn't have insurance yet so she was going to go to the free clinic on Monday. They were closed. She slept all day today and supposedly one of her partners was going to take her to another free clinic today but he never showed. So we are going to get her an appointment with our doctor tomorrow and I'm picking up the tab. I suppose if she needs to for her self esteem, she can pay me back but I don't really need it. I can afford some extra money giving right now and I think it's great to be able to support a family member this way. Now don't even get me started about the inappropriateness of Walgreens not covering her for 90 days. That's a rant for another time and place.
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