Dallying with an ex

Several months ago we suspected the young man who worked in our yard one day a week might have caused a small problem at our house, so we had to let him go.  We didn't accuse him of anything, since we had no proof whatsoever, but we couldn't have him hanging around our house anymore, just in case.  (Side note: he also "trimmed" (i.e. butchered) our hedge nearly beyond repair, so there were also some other reasons for letting him go.)  So then Andrew took over all the yard work (he was already doing most of it) and periodically we've hired someone just for one morning to cut the grass.

Last week Andrew had the stomach flu and so his grand plans of getting lots done in the yard on the weekend were dashed.  Then to make things worse, Saturday evening we had a giant windstorm and after it one could hardly see the grass underneath all the leaves!  Andrew wasn't up for doing the work and I was hardly going to go "mow" (i.e. whack at things with a scythe/knife sort of thing) and sweep up all those leaves since I had the flu a few days before Andrew got it and wasn't feeling well myself (oh yes, and I hate yard work...).

Then our ex-worker showed up Sunday midday, looking very nervous.  I went to go talk to him and the situation was much as I expected.  He needed money and had, rather ashamedly and nervously, come to us in desperation.  His wife was pregnant but had had a miscarriage and needed surgery to remove the fetus.  He had gotten a job as a day laborer since we had let him go, but didn't have quite enough saved to cover the whole cost of the operation.

Andrew and I discussed the matter and decided we could help him a bit, and also could offer him a day's work in our disastrous yard.  He pondered it for a moment and accepted, and proceeded to spend several hours cutting our grass and sweeping up giant piles of grass clippings and leaves and carrying them to the refuse pit.  It wasn't easy work!

So in the end, he was paid very well for just one day's work, we got our whole yard cleaned up (we didn't let him touch the hedge, though!), and his wife was able to have her surgery.  And, to make matters much better in the end, we passed him on the road this morning and were able to give him a smile and wave and he smiled and waved back.  It's not everyday that an ex-employee is happy to see the folks who let him go months before!