D.I.V.O.R.C.E.

Freecycle is a wonderful thing – I have just had a spell of giving away stuff. It never ceases to amaze me how in a short space of time I am privy to the private lives of the people I meet  through giving and taking. I know all about one lady’s childhood – she is expecting her second child you see and tells me how she was so lonely as as a youngster, brought up by her mother and wants her child to have company whilst he’s growing up. Another lady it transpires finds herself newly unattached – her husband walked out three weeks ago – so there I am, in the dark, helping her load stuff into the back of her car and giving advice on what to do when you find yourself at 47, having spent the past 20 years with one man, working, raising a family, everything in joint names, suddenly alone. Perhaps there should be a self help book out there on the subject – council tax reductions for lone occupancy, Working Family Tax Credit, EMA for those over 16 still in full time education. It’s a mine field and at a time when most people are left reeling (I’m sure some men too, when the walker-out is wife not husband) the practical things I think are a way of regaining control of a situation. Another lady was asking for stuff for a small dog as she had found one the day before – she lived quite close to me and I emailed asking whether it was a shitzu as one of our neighbours had lost theirs the day before – and strangely enough it was – so dog and owner were reunited. Freecycle is a real community after all, a bunch of disparate odd bods with similar goals, just muddling along with life. Not a bad thing to swap advice as well as stuff.