Once a week whilst studying at All Nations our tutorial groups were posed with a conundrum under the guise of Mission In Practice. There were rarely straightforward answers and more often than not no real answers at all, just plenty of discussion, some good arguments and the occassional chance to wind someone up for a laugh!So here's one for today..
Frank explained how a couple of weeks ago he was in hospital for 12 days having some serious surgery so he left his wife to manage his affairs. They are an elderly couple living on his small pension and her disability grant, so to supplement their income they let out a wendy house in their yard, the rent for which includes the usual amenities such as electricity.
Frank's wife is a drinker and Frank knows this but thought she had a handle on the issue. Sadly it turns out he had a handle on her drinking and in his absence she was way out of control. In making proper arrangements for his hospitalistaion Frank gave his wife his PIN code to her so that on payday the bills could be paid.
So off Frank goes having done all he can to leave his affairs in order to ensure that things continue as per normal. Pension day comes and his wife duly collects her disability and withdraws half of Frank's pension. She also collected the rent from their tenants and then went on one of the biggest benders ever seen in CNP.
Two weeks later Frank is discharged and comes home to a right royal mess. Their tenants are getting very ugly as they haven't had any electricity for nearly two weeks. Frank's regular bills are unpaid. Now, two weeks before his next payday they have no food, no electricity and angry tenants demanding he sort it out ASAP.
So Frank comes to me and we talk about the situation and he asks for help.
What do you do?
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We'd probably think about making him a gift or a loan. Loans are better than gifts in some ways in terms of helping people to stand on their own feet, but if a loan isn't repaid then it really plays havoc with the relationship, so sometimes it's better to keep the friendship and make a gift... although one person who we have helped out with gifts a couple of times we just found out from his girlfriend that he's carefully documented how much he owes us so he can pay it back, which even if he never does it we're impressed with the intention.
ReplyDeleteApart from the immediate getting out of a corner stuff there's also a whole question about what's Frank (and missus Frank) going to do to ensure that it doesn't happen again? Willing to go to AA?... there must be something like that in South Africa, they're even here.