Why?

I do not understand why, when you help someone, you get crap in return! So, beware, in reading this you will be reading a vent from me :)

November 2006: There was a guy who went through one of Charlie's classes at the college. Near the end of the first semester, his wife kicked him out with their two children. He had no place to go and was living in a camper. When this happened classes were about to let out for Christmas/New Year break.


Charlie came home one night and told me about the situation this man was in. Since we were living in my house in Dandridge, the house we have in Russellville was empty; my first thought was to put them in it! I suggested this to him and he had already had the same thought; he just needed to make sure we agreed before saying anything to the guy about it.


So, he tells the guy about the house and, of course, he is very grateful for the thought. Charlie told him he could live there, rent free, until he got on his feet. Once he got out of school and got a steady job, then we would talk about rent.


Since this happened to be right around Christmas time, I suggested to my Sunday school class that we help him out with toys/clothes for the kids. I explained the situation to them and they were all on board. So, we made that year a great Christmas for him and his two kids.


Fastforward to April 2009: Charlie and I had been discussing the fact that we really needed to be getting some kind of rent with the economy being the way it is. It would help us financially since we are still making payments on that house.


In April, Charlie called him to talk to him about beginning to pay rent. We know at this point he has a steady job and should be able to pay some. Once Charlie sat down and talked to him there was about 2 weeks of phone tag and then nothing.


Early last month, Charlie sent him a letter telling him he needed to pay rent by the end of July or find somewhere else to live. If he was not going to have the courtesy to speak with Charlie then we would have to do it the hard way. So, the letter was sent and now here we are.


August 2009: I went to the house this past Monday to see if anyone was living there. I was able to speak to one of the next door neighbors who said there had been no one there since about May. I did not go in the house but when peeking through the front window saw nothing but trash all through the house. I was furious, to say the least!


I went home and told Charlie what I had found out; he was also mad but not to the point of my mad. Yesterday afternoon, we drove up to the house together. Charlie went inside to look around and see what it looked like all through the house. He was in there for a while and when he came back out I could tell, from the look on his face, it wasn't pretty. The neighbors had come over, and one of them had be so gracious as to mow the lawn, to speak with Charlie while we were there.


In the ongoing of the conversation, and with some papers Charlie had found in the house, we found out there had been no one there since April. He has been gone since April and we have not received a phone call or anything from him!


So now, Charlie is going to the house on Saturday and clean up all the mess they left. The electricity has been shut off and they did not bother to clean out the refridgerator or the upright freezer; loads of food wasted and now rotted so we have to clean it up!


We will have to pay to have the electric and water turned back on because, unfortunately, we trusted this guy to do the right thing so everything was left in our name. He has no ties to the house as far as his name being on anything...it is all on us!


Do we regret putting him in the house? No, and if we had it to do over again, we would. We helped him and his children out in a time of need. There was no way we would have left them living in a camper for the winter. If some other family came along today that was in a similar situation, I can honestly say we would do it again. If we have the resources to help someone out we will, but if we do it again the situation will begin very different and, hopefully, end very different.


Charlie is upset but not really mad. We are both hurt because we helped this guy out and all we get in return is trash, literally! He did not even have the common courtesy to call us and let us know he was leaving. He just left the house a wreck and went on his way.


Once we get the house cleaned up we are going to rent it. There have been some people lately that have asked the neighbors about it. Luckily, we will be able to rent it, but not until we do some major cleaning and remodeling of the inside.