This is pretty much off the topic for just about everything here...but I wanted to share it with the B&SOTL, despite the fact that blabbing about this probably negates the desired effect of the deed.
I've got a wife & a 5 year old kid, and I've been out of a job since September. Long story, the place I worked - you might say went out of business. Anyway, finding another gig in my chosen profession has been difficult to say the least, especially through the holidays. Christmas at our house was probably one of the leanest I can remember; wife and I forgot about doing for each other and focused on our daughter, which made it okay, actually.
But, I've been through some serious depression with my inability, try like hell tho I am, to find a job. My severance ran out December 31st, and we have been putting in 12 hour days trying to get the house we just bought in March (after being told by the bosses that they were going to renew my contract, no problem) ready to go on the market. (It's a fixer upper, and we knew that going in, but now we've had 6 months to do all the repairs instead of 6 years.)
So, you can do the math...no income, mortgage coming due. We cashed in an IRA and paid off our credit cards, etc...pushed the car payments back a couple of months, but still with no job on the horizon, it was getting a tad frantic.
To make a long story even longer, the wife and I were invited out to dinner last week by a wonderful couple who've been friends of ours for many years. Their son died a couple of years ago at the ripe old age of 17, and was a very dear friend of ours. The husband and wife are two of the finest people I know. We had dinner with them (every time they've invited us out - to some pretty nice places - they've insisted that our money was no good) and had a great time, forgetting our troubles for a moment.
(Might also add here that my wife was diagnosed with a malignant melanoma last week...we go Monday for more tests and see what's what...nothing like stress on top of stress).
Anyway, I go to the mailbox yesterday and grab the mail, expecting more past due notices and bills. There's an envelope from the real estate company that the husband half of our friends runs.
Inside the envelope was a check for $5,000.
The letter that the husband and wife had written asked us to take the check and use it to bridge the rough patches between now and when I get a job (which hopefully will be within the next couple of weeks...a couple of very good leads are beginning to pan out). The couple also said they believed it was what their son would've wanted, and thanked us for being such great friends to him during his short time here.
Never count your friends out, I suppose is what I'm saying...the wife and I were absolutely hysterical yesterday. Nothing we could ever say or do can accurately portray how much they've saved our lives.
Friends are what get you through the lousy parts of life.
Sorry for the novel; again, I just wanted to share how truly blessed my wife and I are, despite circumstances that would indicate differently.
Egg
