Hello lovelies! As I said in my prior edition, a lot has happened in a short space of time, I’m grateful that I got a chance to finally find the time to sit & put as much as I can on paper. I was told the other day by a new friend that while I am going through the most & it seems like no light at the end of the tunnel, my story inspires & motivates many others so against my mother’s best advice – I’ve decided to continue sharing my life journey.
Where to start? Maybe at the very beginning…..
I have rented a flat all my adult life & stayed with the same landlord for many years with no issues. I was then approached by a friend about renting her house & at the same time we fell in love with a puppy who needed rescuing, so it seemed like a Godsend. It was agreed that we she would charge the same price as I was paying at the flat & I sent her a copy of my bill to validate, she agreed so all good. In the month we were meant to move, suddenly the place was not ready, the following month same story but we had to push to move because we had already given notice 2 months prior & my landlord granted us an extension when she said it wasn’t ready the first time. My husband was suspicious, but I was blinded by excitement.
We moved in & most of the work wasn’t even completed, the kitchen & shower had no taps, there was barb wire in the lounge, it was a nightmare & my carpenter who helped me move dissuaded me with going through with it. My friend said all would be sorted out in a few days, so I continued. Since then, it’s been a nightmare with her charging me an extra R2k per month once I was settled & when I queried it said I could move out if I was not happy. I had spent so much money on making the space a civil place to live that I couldn’t move again so I was forced to pay the additional value. When something needed attention/ fixing it would be multiple messages & constant follow ups & nothing would be done for weeks & months – always a story. (Whatsapp & email messages available).
The move to this house crippled us financially & cast a dark cloud over our lives, we have only just resurfaced toward the end of last year when she arrived in November with a property manager who came to intimidate me (video evidence available) & also gave me a new lease for an increase of R1000 per month when she had just applied a R550 increase in Jul. I immediately gave them notice to vacate & then she asked for an individual meeting, against my better judgement I accommodated it. She blamed the whole incident on the new property manager. She advised she would do better especially with transparency & communication, I agreed to stay & didn’t hear from her again until April when again intimidation tactics were used. Again, I gave them notice to vacate & again they asked for a meeting. I made it clear in this meeting that there was no way I would continue to stay no matter what commitments etc were being made due to the 3 year trend of bad form on her part – all this with me not having a place to go to by the way.
In the few days after that, my life was turned upside down with such negative thoughts & occurrences until finally my prayer shelf caught fire & burnt all my religious statues, prayer beads, incense etc all completely out. I’m so grateful I got to it in time to kill it, but it was traumatizing & we were sick for a few days. The fire made me realize how short life is & dwelling on materialistic things is really not the way to spend one’s life. After a lot of reflection, I realized that somehow in the year of so much CHANGE, I lost myself along the way. I had become so consumed with my business & making ends meet & becoming a successful entrepreneur that I didn’t realize how it drove my once close-knit family apart. For the first time in a long time, I realized that it was seldom that we shared supper together, prayed together in the evenings, watched tv together or really even talked. Each one was on their laptops in their rooms or watching videos on their phones & it was heartbreaking. I gave too much of myself in this past year & it wasn’t fair to the people who mean the most to me.
Many other terrible things happened since & I’m convinced that it’s the final bad juju of the move here. It’s been extremely triggering as well, my priest recommended we move out early last year already but then more life changing things happened & we just couldn’t. I’m optimistic that things will start changing once we have put this 3 year nightmare in the past.
I’m grateful that while this was a very traumatic time for my family, it gave us all a new outlook on life & the opportunities we have to live it well each day instead of just trying to survive each day. So many of us are on survival mode instead of living life mode & its sad because the situation in our country rarely gives us the choice to do anything different. I’m grateful that I have the choice & the ability to be deliberate about life. I hope this story in particular helps you re-evaluate your own lives & journeys & make the changes that are needed.
Until next time…… remember to bake someone happy!