Sherri used to be a preschool teacher before she retired, so my kids just love her and she knew exactly what to do to keep the kids occupied and interested in things! She buys them Christmas and Birthday gifts every year and always sends a card to each one in the mail to make them feel special.
Since we moved to our new house, my mom has gotten into the habit of keeping one of our kids over night on Friday nights. She alternates a kid each week, so that they all get their own Grammy time. She started inviting Sherri over once in awhile on Fridays so that she could see the kids, too since we moved out of town. This turned into another habit. Every Friday my mom keeps one kid and Sherri comes over and has dinner, plays games...etc..
A few weeks ago, as Sherri was leaving, she fell. It all happened very oddly. My mom said she was watching out the door and all of the sudden she couldn't see Sherri. She walked outside and Sherri was laying in front of some bushes. My mom asked her if she was ok as she was walking out and Sherri just got right up, said, "Yeah, I twisted my ankle, I'm ok" and got in her car and left. My mom didn't know what to think, she didn't know if Sherri was mad at her or why she acted so weird and left so quickly, maybe she was embarrassed?
She decided to call her the next day just to check in on her. Sherri said that she had problems in the past with seeing the steps at my mom's house at night time, and she thought it was because of her bifocals... and she was going down the steps turning around waving goodbye to my son instead of paying attention on the steps that she knew she had problems seeing at night to begin with. She said she twisted her ankle. She even joked around about it because she used her ankle as an excuse not to help her church that day and she would have to "remember to limp" when she went to church the following day.
Sooo everything seems to be ok and life goes on as usual. Last Friday, Sherri came over as always to have dinner and spend some time with my mom and one of my little angels (ha!). Sherri then tells my mom that she went to her doctor on Monday and found out her ankle is fractured. She had one of those boot thingies on. She said she wanted my mom's landlord to pay the remaining bill that her insurance doesn't cover. My mom is of course very upset by this so she begins texting her landlord. (BTW, her landlord is super cool.. was a work friend of her's husband). The landlord finally calls on the phone and Sherri talks to him telling him what happened and what she expected of him. She told him that she would let him make payments if he needed to! The landlord was not happy at all and was kind of pissed that he had only just heard about it a week after it happened.. until my mom talked to him in private and told him everything.
My mom is the type of person that doesn't like to step on toes or assert her opinion. She doesn't like drama or any kind of problems. She said that for the entire evening, all Sherri did was talk about her ankle, and how uncomfortable her boot is, and how inconvenient it is for her. It was to the point where my mom wanted to ASK her to leave.
My mom told me about it and I was in shock. Never expecting Sherri to do something like that. First of all, it was her OWN fault because she KNEW she had a problem with those steps every time she came over but she was turning around trying to wave at my son instead of paying attention! Plus, she didn't go to the doctor until Monday. You would think if it hurt that bad she would have gone to the E.R., right?
The whole thing has been bugging my mom all week. She finally decided that she didn't want to make her landlord pay and that would try to guilt Sherri out of the whole thing. Sherri showed up as usual tonight (Friday) and my mom told her that she didn't feel right asking her landlord to pay for that. Sherri's response was, "you are not asking him, I am!"... and my mom told her that SHE would just make payments instead of the landlord. Sherri's response was, "ok!".
I was dumbfounded when she told me that and really quite pissed off!!!!! My mom invites Sherri over and sometimes they go out to dinner, or sometimes when the kids are over they will order pizza. Every time Sherri goes out anywhere with us (sometimes it is with ALL of us), my mom pays for it. She says that she feels that whoever invites the other one should pay (wow is that soo old fashioned!). Sherri never offers to pay or to even get the damned tip. She's been coming to my mom's every Friday now for the past 2-3 months and having dinner.. that my mom paid for whether it be home made or ordered out. Sherri did start bringing a dessert some times, but last week she brought a bag of pretzels because it was just too hard to get around to make something with her ankle and all. Ha!!
My mom's to the point now where she doesn't even want to talk to her. Sherri has always been a good person. She is very involved in church, she is retired but she earns money by cleaning elderly people's houses. So why would she do something like this?? I've told my mom for awhile now that Sherri was taking advantage of her because my mom was always paying for everything. Sherri knows that my mom doesn't have a lot of money and after everything and all these years, she would do something like this?? I mean, some landlords are REAL assholes and could get pissed enough that they would raise her rent or even try to find a reason to kick my mom out. Ya never know, right? Apparently, one of the elderly people that Sherri works for, told her to go see a specialist (for a flippin fracture??). Is she freakin serious??
I'm just kinda sad about the whole thing. Sad that someone so close to us like Sherri would do something like that to my mom. My mom doesn't hurt a fly. I heart her. I heart Sherri, too but neither one of us know what to do about the situation. No matter how well you think you know someone, you never know what to expect.
2 comments:
Life happens sometimes. I wonder how much out of pocket the expense could be. If I was you mom, I would offer to pay it myself as a sign of friendship.
That's exactly what my mom did, but she didn't mean it as a sign of friendship. She tried to "guilt" her out of the whole thing. She told her that she didn't think it was right to make the landlord pay when it wasn't his fault, and that she would pay it if she needed it that bad. Her friend just said, "ok".
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