I just found out that my friend Stacy and her husband are filing for bankruptcy.  I feel so bad for them. They have 2 little kids and one of them has had some health problems over the last two years.  Poor little guy has had to have several surgeries to repair a heart condition. He's been in the hospital at least a dozen times and he still keeps smiling.  Unfortunately, all those medical bills piled up, even though they had health insurance. Of course, she also had to quit working so she could care for him and his sister.  Taking off so many days to help take care of him just wasn't feasible. They tried really hard to keep it together, but the bills kept piling on and they couldn't see themselves ever digging out of them.  When I talked to her, she said they now owed over $200,000 to the hospital.  Then they have their car or house bills to worry about too. I just hope they can come out of this and everything will get easier for them.  I know her son is healing well and they expect him to make a full recovery, so at least that is great news. They have definitely had their share of trials.

Chapter 7 bankruptcy?  We weren't sure.  We didn't know what to do exactly, and a number of friends have offered advice. We don't want word getting out too much on this, as the business will have to be closed and the assets sold off.  Even though we don't live in the same town, we do live in the same county, and word travels fast.  The only assets that aren't pledged to some other previoius debt are a couple of the older trucks which aren't worth much anyway.  We will have to sell our home too, as we will never be able to pay off the amount of money we owe the varioius creditors.  I don't know how we will get through this or where we will go when it's all said and done.  You'd be surprised how quickly you lose friends when you are on the downhill slide.  I just don't know how we got to this place.  Well, I do really, but it took us by surprise.  I made a few errors in judgement, and nobody caught it.  We should have never gotten into bed with that big company.  They began to tell us how to run our production, and we ramped up to meet it.  Tht was a big mistake.  When they pulled the plug it cost dearly.

I went into the delicatessen to get some bread and in walked Shirl, already loaded down with shopping bags.  I offered to help her, but she told me she was just getting some fish.  She was taking the bus, she explained, and going west to her sister’s house.  I asked her how Beverly’s doing.  Shirl frowned and said, Not too well.  It seems that Shirl’s sister Beverly is thinking about filing for bankruptcy.  I asked why.  Shirl explained to me that she just lost her job.  Beverly has been widowed for many years and her one daughter, married, lives in California, clear on the other side of the country.  They’re pretty much estranged.  Beverly has a grandson who’s now four, and Cathy, her daughter, sends pictures each year, but that’s about it.  So, Beverly doesn’t have very much of Sid’s money left, and she’s in a quandary about what to do.  She’s in good health, but what happens if she gets sick, for example?  Shirl said that she wanted to try to help her, but she was sure Beverly would refuse her help.  Shirl lives reasonably comfortably, with her own children long grown, but she’s not what you’d call wealthy or anything.  She works as a legal secretary and earns a good salary.  I’ve known her since grade school.  Shirl is nothing if not honest.  I know she’s feeling distraught about Beverly’s situation.

“Look at him, just sitting there with a muffin and a cup of tea.  You’d think he was poor as a church mouse.”  I looked over at the forlorn-looking man a few tables down in the cafeteria.  He wasn’t really even eating the muffin, just picking at it in very small gestures.  He certainly didn’t look hungry.  “I swear it’s like all these people are filing bankruptcy.”  I stared at Carolyn for a moment.  I was deathly afraid she was going to start on one of her rants any second.  Sure enough, she was.  I drew in my breath so she could get going, pick up steam.  She took one more glance around the nearly empty cafeteria and let loose; anyone could have heard her for miles around.  “They need to get a job!!!!  They need to pick themselves up off the ground.  Why can’t they see that!!  There’s plenty of work out there—plenty.  But these people are lazy!!  They’re full of it; they don’t know the first thing about getting a decent job.  I did it and they could too.  Right?  You know what I’m talking about don’t you Shermy?  My God, look, you’re the top man in your department now and you yourself started at entry-level!  You’re not going to tell me…”  She spun around to see some old bent-over guy with one of those wizened faces looking directly at her.  “Would you please be quiet, dear,” he said very politely.  “You’re too loud for some of us to deal with.”  I almost choked on my beef stew.  “Don’t you DARE laugh.  Don’t you laugh!!!” she warned.

My moving company was close to declaring bankruptcy. It made me only too happy when the cities most known relocation services called me up asking me if my moving crew was interested in partnering up with them. Without much hesitation I immediately accepted the offer. The crew I had working for me was just about as shocked as I had been at what could be perceived as an awesome stroke of good luck. Tom got so excited he decided it was quite the opportune time for our company to celebrate. He told us all to wait there, and he would be back as soon as possible. It did not take long for us to figure out what Tom was up to, and about ten minutes later he returned carrying three cases of beer and quite the bottle of scotch. This was an immense amount of alcohol for five men, if I may say so myself. It took about a half hour for it all to be consumed leaving us all stoned. Unfortunately our first business call came way too fast. Without much delay we all filed out to our trucks, half walking, half crawling, at this point we really could not concentrate on walking very straight. As soon as the truck engine started I smelled trouble, however being that I was not too sober myself the suspicions ended just about there. About five minutes into the drive the city radio was blaring about its biggest accident, two moving trucks colliding into each other on the highway. I was in the third truck, and sobered up as soon as I heard the announcement. It did not take much longer for the relocation services agency to call offering their condolences and to remove the few hour old partnership.