josamarie

Hate…

August 10th, 2007 | Josie

Hating people is like burning down your own house to get rid of a rat.  ~Henry Emerson Fosdick

Or, in our case, a bat. I never fail to be astounded by the lengths that some people will go to in order to destroy the lives of other people. Amid all of the hustle and bustle, the to-and-fro motion I seem to be constantly enjoying as I fly across the ocean and drive from one end of the state to the other, we get a law suit thrown on top of us, too.

My parents recently moved across the state, following my mom’s new job. Now, all of that isn’t really my business since I don’t live with them anymore and I haven’t lived with them for two years, but they are my family, so of course I help out. What kind of daughter would I be if I didn’t? The people that bought their home are nightmares incarnate, driving us out of our home a week before they had previously agreed on, calling my parents names, treating them like so much scum. My parents have bent over backwards to placate them, but none of that seemed to matter. As we drove away from the home that I lived in longer than I have ever lived anywhere else in my life, a whopping five years, all I could think was “good ridance.” Although the buyers’ negative attitude had made the moving out process hectic and wearing, at least we would no longer have to deal with them.

That sort of thinking proved to be overly optomistic. Since my parents departure a month ago, the buyers have peppered them with demands and complaints, culminating in a potential law suit against my parents for the presence of bats in the home. The claim is that my parents knew about the bats and hid them, but in the five years that I lived with my family in that home, I saw a grand total of two bats. The thing that is so ludicrous about the allegation is that my parents raised four girls in that house. If anyone would have freaked out about bats, it would have been my sisters and I. The last time I saw a bat, my cat had caught it and brought in the house. When he came trotting towards me to show me his prize, I flew in to the bathroom, screaming like a banshee. I proceeded to lock the door and hide in the bathtub for the better part of 10 minutes. Does that really sound like a person that would have been content to live amidst a bat infestation for five years? Not bloody likely!

The thing is that when this goes to court, I am not worried that my parents will lose. They have a solid case and a million and two character witnesses to atest to the fact that they are good people not likely to scam anyone. What upsets me the most about this ordeal is the testament to the kind of people that live in this world. There are people that would try to ruin a family, destroying their memories of a home that they loved, simplely for personal gain. It breaks my heart that people can be that petty. All we wanted was to leave our home knowing that they people who bought it would love it as much as we did. Instead, we have had nothing but turmoil. I just pray that once all of this is over, we can get back to our lives and start over, like we have done countless times before.