A co-worker's angst Have you heard of the old song from HEE HAW: �If I didn�t have bad luck, I�d have no luck at all�? This is what�s happening to my co-worker, C. I�ll give some background: She�s a single mother of a lovely one-year-old girl. The father, B, has been basically in the picture the whole time. C found out she was pregnant again and the decision was made to place the child for adoption. During this entire time, C was pretty well okay with the decision. They believed the baby to be a girl, and a lovely family was found to place baby with. C, however, did not make very plans financially for when she would be out on maternity leave. I don�t know how adoption agencies work, but I would suspect that there MUST be some sort of plan in place because obviously the birth mother CAN�T go to work while convalescing. At the same time, however, it�s illegal to BUY a baby so any sort of financial assistance might be considered a pay-off? I�m not sure. Anyhow, the baby arrived and it turned out to be a boy. I guess he was shy and didn�t want to show his winkle on ultrasound. C remains in hospital for longer than expected due to an infection and high fever, and the baby is ill as well. C and B are waffling now about whether to place the baby. Obviously, the law does give you a certain amount of time � 72 hours � from when the baby is released from hospital to decide if the baby will be placed or not. C went home and eventually the decision was made to place the baby (with the same family who was expecting a girl � they didn�t mind). Her delivery was rough and since she had peritonitis following (I�m assuming, what else could it have been??) so she didn�t return to work when she expected to. C also expected to return to work in seven days. The earliest I�ve ever seen a new mother come back to full-time work was two weeks, and that new mother is INSANE. (figuratively, not literally). C was suddenly evicted from her apartment. The first she heard of it was when she received a summons to appear in court. C had arranged for the agency to pay for the month�s rent, but supposedly the apartment manager wouldn�t accept a third-party check. So C found herself homeless and having to stay in an extended-stay hotel. Her car also took a dump so she�s been taking taxis everywhere. With her eviction, her credit is shot, so finding a new apartment has been a struggle. She has been arranging for the agency to help her with the rent on the hotel, but I have a feeling that that�s about to run out. Furthermore, one of my other co-workers and I lent her quite a bit of money (enough for a month�s rent on a reasonable apartment) to help her out. I know I�ll never see that money again, but I knew that when I lent it to her. Meanwhile, C and B have been having problems ever since the baby�s birth, and I have a feeling that B felt that they shouldn�t place the child since it was a boy. B hasn�t been helping her with their daughter during this whole time. The daughter is currently in CA with B�s mother. C�s mother also lives in CA. This morning, I get a call from C (and she was already an hour late) that she �took a fall� over the weekend and had to have a tetanus shot, which is making her throw up. I asked what in the world she did, and she said that she injured her hand and her foot, but didn�t mention any kind of puncture wounds that I would consider tetanus-shot necessary. She said she would be late and I told her that if she�s vomiting, that�s not good and she should possibly get herself to an ER or at least wait until she stops vomiting before she comes in. I called the boss (D) and told her � this has been an ongoing problem with C. Suddenly falling ill, coming in late, always being tired, etc. C and I and D had had a conversation the previous week about what an ass B has been being to her, and I told D that I didn�t think C took a fall, but that I suspected B hurt her. D said she would investigate and asked me to call S (another coworker who worked with C on Sunday) to see if C appeared injured on Sunday. S confirmed that C did have a large bruise on her arm with smaller bruises that could have been a hand mark. S concurred what I was thinking. I got a hold of D again and confirmed that with her. Just now I got off the phone with D and D had talked to C. C confirmed that B had in fact hurt her, as he was looking for �money that she owed him�, and he shoved his way into her hotel room and snatched her wallet, taking about $100. C insists that �this is the first time he ever did that�, but now I�m thinking back to her pattern of listlessness, fatigue, and poor spirits and I�m not so sure. Currently C is moving hotel rooms and awaiting a money wire from her cousin. I think I should try to convince her to just move back to CA, live with her mother, and build a new runway to take off from and bust B�s ass to the curb. SIGH
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