....approaching ten months! Sometimes, I almost felt guilty that my time had been so free of urges and cravings!
That day, a woman was crying outside my apt building. Another woman was attempting to console her. The first woman was shaking, trembling saying she was cold and hungry. She was a veteran, just got home from Afghanistan and here in Calif. why did the darn banks make you have an address before issuing you an ATM card and how was she to withdraw her money? So, I brought her to my apt., along with the second woman, so we could discuss how to help her. I gave her a jacket, fed her, gave her $20 and the second woman gave her $13 and vowed to take her to her hotel while picking up her daughter (16yrs) at the Boys and Girls Club.
Several days later, I get a phone call from her and she comes over. I am thrilled to see her and I tell her I knew she'd return to pay me back. But, no, she's in dire need this time. Her daughter, on her way to a tournament with other Boys and Girls from the club, began to have seizures and is now in the hospital in San Francisco. We go online and look at how much a ticket costs on the bus. $52 round trip. Where is your ATM card, I ask? Oh, it's with her daughter, of course. But the military has paid her all her back pay and she'll be back to pay me.
Before she left, I instructed her to call me and let me know how her daughter was doing once she got there.
She called an hour later. She sounded "off". Not particularly making sense.
I waited an hour. I called her back. This time, she made NO sense. Just kept saying "Ok" to whatever I asked her.
I knew. I had given $80 (total) to someone, this woman, this "vet", and it was all a scam. A fraud. I was out $80 now and I'd most likely never see her or my money again. Me. The one who's as poor as a church mouse. Living on disability.
In the past, my family and friends have gotten very upset with me for being so "gullible" and "naive". For being so willing to help others when I don't know that they're on the up and up. And here it was again. I'd done it again, for Pete's sake!
I was so angry, so humiliated, so disappointed in my own lack of judgment I was ready to smoke. Then and there.
It was thanks to my neighbor that I didn't.
I am ashamed for not knowing better. I have not divulged this episode to my family and only one friend knows. I am so terribly embarrassed for being taken in.
So, when I later called the phone number, the person who owns the phone answered. His name is Chris and I told him I was going to keep "nagging" him until I got my money back as he knows her. He knows she's a con artist, too. He said he was sorry for her behavior but it wasn't his fault. I agreed but said I needed my money back and his number was my only connection to her.
It has taken me a couple of weeks here to pull up the nerve to share this with you all. I have FINALLY learned my lesson the hard way.
I managed to not smoke over it but man, it was hard. After a day or so, I went back to sailing, not even thinking about smoking. But this episode scared me. Made me realize to never be complacent about my quit and to recognize one of my strongest triggers is fear plus money plus acute disappointment.
Thanks for listening...
