By Rosetta Miller-Perry
It’s a double-blow to lose your hard-earned cash taken by someone you know. A thief will steal something even more valuable than money or goods, they also steal your trust.
The aspects of this crime is rotten. The challenge is handling a form of betrayal to keep the rot from taking hold. It’s a paradox to be sure to cultivate trust even as I recognized that a friend violated it; or to accept that a crime was perpetrated against me without allowing it to recast my identity. The point is to move on from the event while learning from it, and to reclaim both what belongs to me and my confidence.
It’s not easy, and it hurts like hell, but such is the work of healing. Imagine this: you call 4 renters to see what happened to last month’s rent check since it didn’t arrive at my bank. They told me that they paid the rent to the person I hired to collect the rent and they showed me proof when I visited the site. I was astonished, having never seen the money not even to this day. I still don’t have that money. Making matters worse, they were charged far more than I was aware of, you know that old-kick back scheme. The person responsible started lying and back-pedaling stating that the old lady doesn’t know what she is talking about. Who do you believe? The old lady who just opened two stores at Nashville’s International Airport or a well known schemer who wants to live like the rich and famous on other peoples money?
I contacted my lawyer and had him served and now I wait to have my day in court. When you hear the name of this person don’t be flabbergasted, someone warned me that he has been to court several times for similar money schemes. But I said he’s my friend, he’s not like that. I was so wrong to have counted him as a friend, someone who I trusted, housed his mother, grandmother and models in my condo on the lake for free when he had a house and two rental homes.
My husband always said I was a fool for helping so many folks, perhaps he was right.
I am normally not a bitter person, but now, since through this crook, I gave Fisk Jubilee Singers $10,000 with plans to give annually, I can’t do that now because it will always remind me of this crook.
That is so sad and I am wiping all traces of this crook from my life now and forever more.
I have yet to receive rent given to this man from my property, perhaps my rent is still on vacation on Martha’s Vineyard, a popular vacation spot among the wealthy.
