Yet Another Injustice

On Tuesday File Clerk was in an awful mood. While I was nearby filing, I asked if everything was okay.

FC: No, I'm furious. Furious!
Zoe: Why?
FC: My landlord called and left a message on my cell phone.
Zoe: .....?
FC: I didn't pay my rent. I'm late paying this month.
Zoe: Sounds reasonable, what am I missing?
FC: This is the first time in YEARS I'm late paying my rent and he's calling my cell phone? How dare he? HOW. DARE. HE.

Okay, what the hell, people? Tuesday was February 6th. What's so unreasonable about the landlord calling regarding rent owed a few days after it was supposed to be late? Is the landlord supposed to not contact her at all? Say "Oh, you're having a hard time, so don't worry about rent this month" to her?

It turns out that a few months ago, FC broke a glass and sliced her finger and had to go to the emergency room. Then a couple of months ago she had pneumonia and went to the emergency room again. (FC has health insurance - it's not clear to me exactly why she didn't go to her doctor for pneumonia - it's not the sort of thing that hits you with no warning usually, you start with bronchitis and work your way up. But anyway. Maybe it was a weekend, I don't know.)

So apparently when you go to the emergency room you have a $50 co-pay or something. I don't know for sure. So that's $100. FC claims that the hospital told her to pay them some amount higher than $50 each time and she did, not realizing she was paying them with money she'd mentally allocated for rent.

Again I tell you, FC is a smart person. Why didn't she say, "I can't afford this, please put me on a payment plan"? I know a guy who had to have his dislocated shoulder relocated and got a whopper of an ER bill (he had no health insurance at all) and he paid $10 per month for something like four years.

You might remind me that when you're sick and scared and in pain you can't think straight and you need an advocate and you just do what people tell you to. Maybe when she sliced her hand open, yes. Maybe the first time. But the second time, so soon after the first? I mean, I could be close to death and I'd still manage to be careful about anything involving money, especially if I had very little of it.

Why didn't FC, upon realizing she was going to be short her full rent, immediately contact her landlord at the end of January and give all she had for February's rent and beg to be allowed to pay the rest at a later date? I've never done it, but know people who have, and if someone is a good tenant and it doesn't happen on a regular basis, my understanding is most landlords are human and will say okay.

I am trying to be sympathetic, really I am. I *have* lived month-to-month. I have worried about how I would pay rent. Really. I have gone into credit card debt when I've been out of a job. Purposely in fact, to keep cash on hand for rent.

So why does FC think it was inappropriate of her landlord to leave a voicemail asking when he could expect the month's rent? These are the things that drive me crazy.

We have dental insurance too. At one point in life I was earning so little that I opted out of all insurance at my job, but FC signed up for all of it.

So when she arrived at work this week holding her jaw, wincing when she spoke, I asked if she needed the name and number of a good dentist. No, she can't afford it. The next day her cheek looked swollen and even opening her mouth hurt, when the cold air went inside. I decided to try again. Very gently I explained that she should go to the dentist NOW, because these things only get worse.

FC: But I can't take any time off!
Zoe: But this is one of those situations where you can either take a day off now and be in a lot of pain, or take four days off later AND be in excruciating pain. You have to pick the lessor of the two evils.

No dice. There are some people who don't want help. I think FC is one of them. Or at least, she doesn't want help from me. I should let it go.