How things shape your life...

We went to visit an ex-colleague from work, a friend who we all worked with just over a year ago.  We came home some two hours later, feeling saddened that her life has changed so drastically for her and we didn't even know.

She told us she had a nervous breakdown earlier in the year and spent 7 weeks in hospital after taking an overdose and trying to take her life.  Now she is doing better, she's on medication and seeing a psychiatrist.  She has a long way to go to be where she was last year but she's trying...and I have decided we have to help where we can.

But what brought her to the point of feeling there is no point?

It all started April 2012 when the offices we worked at were broken into one night.  We arrived for work as usual and were told to all wait downstairs until the police had finished with finger printing the crime scene and talking to our boss, the owner of the business.  We all stood outside talking through the little bits of information we had gleaned from one of our co-workers who had opened up the office that morning and found what happened.  Entrance was gained through the security gate and bottom door in the parking  area, up the stairs and through the door that leads directly into our offices.  It appeared keys had been used as very badly made 'forced entry' marks were noted on the inside of the doors.  The alarm was de-activated, access gained through another locked door into the server room where all the spare laptops were taken...from office to office the perpetrators took all the other laptops and then left.  The thief/ves were very selective in the things they stole....there was so much more they could have taken and yet they didn't.  Things didn't add up and with Johan's experience in the forensic business we deduced amongst ourselves that it must have been an inside job.

We were all told we would have to undergo a lie detector test and while we each waited for our turn we carried on with our work as best we could with the PC's.  As it transpired, I wasn't called for a lie detector test and on talking to my boss, it appeared that they already suspected someone and it was mere formality that they called select employees.  I was amazed to hear this but didn't ask any questions as it wasn't any of my business and I had nothing to do with it anyway.

After the weekend we all arrived at the office to work as usual.  About an hour later I was called to my boss who asked me if I had ever taken or been given the spare set of keys to the office by my colleague.  After answering in the negative, he ranted and raved in front of me about some lies being told which I didn't understand and the next minute he stormed out.  Half an hour later  I received a message from another colleague to meet our friend outside.  That was when I heard that she had been fired on the spot.  One of the directors had called her in to his office, told her, her lie detector test showed she wasn't telling the truth and he couldn't work with a thief so he said she should pack up her desk and leave....and that was it.

She went to the CCMA, who started off very well fighting her case and then petered off and left it.  The company directors never arrived for one meeting with the CCMA, just ignoring them and why they didn't take the matter further I have no idea.  The result was, our friend couldn't find another job as she had been branded as a thief. She lost her home and is now living in a two room place with no windows, no water, no electricity and no bathroom, toilet facities or kitchen.  Strangely the company never charged her with theft and she was never interviewed again by the police.

This incident ruined her life, with no work, no income, children to support and send to school, she sank deeper and deeper into depression, resulting in her deciding to take her life. When we visited her, she told us the same director who told her to pack her bags, recently phoned her to ask her to help him out with a business idea...she refused and I don't blame her.

I believe she's innocent and I also believe she was set up...whatever the case, the whole incident became a turning point in her life.  She is not bitter, she is not sad...she has taken a knock of the worst kind but is ready to move forward and if we can be there for her and help, we will....starting with helping her find work so she can earn an income and give her a feeling of worth.

It is said that incidents shape peoples lives and until recently, I always only ever thought of this in a positive way...now I see the world differently....