THEY COME, THEY GO

I feel swamped. It seems like I have been talking nonstop with people since Wednesday morning, maybe even since Monday evening.

Chas had a meeting with the administration Tuesday morning. He was frightened it had something to do with the last residents meeting when he got into it with Rocky. One of our mentally challenged men was trying to talk to Rocky in the course of the meeting. While it is true that he rarely makes sense and is always off topic, he did have the attention of Rocky. Chas was very annoyed so he interrupted to put his two cents in which included a subtle put down of our friend. Rocky addressed Chas and clarified that he had interrupted. Good ole’ Chas pulled his “I’m hurt stunt” and wheeled out of the room to one on the side where he could hear what was going on, but was hard to see. That was Gail’s view of the story, and a couple of others.

Knowing he was called in by the administration, Chas visited me on Monday night to tell me about the meeting and get his fears off his chest. Now while I had heard about the residents meeting, I wasn’t there. I had a doctor’s appointment. So I backed the story up to get his point of view. It was certainly different than what I had been hearing. He felt like he had simply asked a questioned and Rocky would not let him talk. I asked if anything else was happening at the time of your question. Nothing, he said. Were others talking? No. Why did you think he shut you down? I don’t know. It didn’t make sense.

I could not get him to acknowledge any responsibility on his part. He was innocent. But he wasn’t.

He had the meeting on Tuesday and I was busy working on the August newsletter so I could meet today’s deadline. That night I confirmed the story with Gail. I was concerned that he had plans to lie to the administration.

Wednesday morning I skipped coffee to work on the newsletter when the lady across the hall from Chas knocked on my door. I could see she was distressed before she said how upset she was. Do you want to talk about it? Yes. Have a seat. What did you think about the letter we got this morning? What letter? The one taped to our door. I haven’t been out so have not seen the letter. She retrieved the letter and I read that Rocky was no longer employed at The Home effective immediately. It was blunt, to the point and (to my eyes) looked like he had been fired.

She was crushed. In her way of seeing things he was the only one who would stand up to her archenemy and put her in her place. I will agree with that. Why is he leaving? That was an absurd question to put to me. How would I know? It looked like he was fired, but I wasn’t going to pass that on. I listened and tried to explain things in as tender a way as I could. I did not want to rile her up. He is having health problems, he is not able to work 40 hours a week, maybe he was being going to jail for the on going court case he was facing. It was all speculation.

I got a call while she was talking and put it off until afternoon. The woman in my apartment needs lots of encouragement and support. I knew if I could not get her calmed down she would fly off the handle and say things she would regret to anyone in hearing distance. She liked the guy while others did not. No one knew why we were getting the letter and we likely never will.

Rockys' sudden departure was the talk of the buildings. Apparently he began work Wednesday morning (getting ready to paint) was taken into the office by his immediate boss and never returned to work. We had the note within minutes of that little talk.

OK, I admit I am interesting in the scuttlebutt. I hung around open spaces to see if anyone actually knew anything. No one seemed to suspect he had been fired. Shortly before noon on Thursday I saw Chas. Gail and I were upstairs working on her life story for the newsletter. I do a profile story on a resident each month.

It was obvious Chas wanted to talk. Gail excused herself to go get something to eat and Chas let go. Do you think anything I said caused his departure? You mean you think he was fired? Yes. What did you say?

He repeated the Resident meeting conflict so I asked if everything he said was correct and he said yes. I confronted that and told him what I knew. He then acknowledged that he had interrupted. Rocky and Chas have the same cleaning lady. Apparently Rocky asked the woman’s 18-year-old daughter to total his truck. He would pay her $600. He wanted the insurance money and the payments topped. He mentioned that and that his mother was here. Both were unknown to the administration. Who knows what else he said or how true it all was. He was mad and wanted the bosses to know he was mad.

So did he have anything to do with the departure? Maybe. I wasn’t about to let him off the hook completely since he was speaking out of anger and may have lied about some, most or even all of the stories he passed along. Anyway, Rocky no longer works here. Speculation continues. I just finished the newsletter and got it off. Chas has some guilt but will not acknowledge that nay have helped that along. There were other issues and they have been building. Something he may have said may have pushed the decision over the line, but he never started the man’s problems.