Today I caught
up with a group of acquaintances. A new
lady joined the group recently, no one knows much about her but we accepted her
as one of the crowd.
Over lunch we
were discussing our grocery shopping habits, where to go, where NOT to go and
how much we tend to spend.
She is on a
single disability pension. Can’t work,
at all.
Living on a
farm, she rents a shed to live in, works hard for nothing to supplement
the rent. It’s all she can afford.
She has some
dogs, chickens & other birds, loves them.
As the
conversation went on she mentioned that her grocery shop is $100 a fortnight,
we all exclaimed how lucky she was, assuming that she supplemented her diet
with produce from the farm.
She doesn’t.
After the
animals have been fed and cared for she often goes without an adequate meal…all
day, nearly every day.
Literally has
toast for breakfast and dinner.
She wasn’t
looking for sympathy, or a hand-out, probably wouldn’t accept it anyway.
I don’t know
what I’m trying to say here, I am just devastated that such a lovely lady is
having such a hard time.
It isn’t
something I give much thought to with my own day to day struggles, and now I am
ashamed.
Jo
People in situations like that always show such quiet strength. It makes me wonder if I could be as brave if I was in the same situation.
ReplyDeleteI know excatly what you mean.
DeleteI love this. People DON'T think or understand. So many people think that the people who receive government benefits are just there to rip off the system... Those people will be out there I'm afraid, but they are not the norm. Poverty is not am easy life and not being able to work would be awful. And single parents will be the first ones penalised financially under new budget if they want to go to university to study to try and get out of the poverty cycle. We are so very blessed to live in a country which supports the needy, but no one should ever judge them or assume they have a good life because of it. Just think of all those friends you may have met along the way, who suddenly couldn't make it out for coffee as their 'kids got sick' (all of a sudden). People should assume that maybe, just maybe, they were too embarrassed to admit they did NOT have even $5 spare.
ReplyDeleteSo true.
DeleteAs the parent of a child who will one day receive a disability pension all I can say is please say yes to the NDIS. Our country needs a National Disability Insurance Scheme. I spend tens of thousands of dollars each year trying to give my child the best therapy he can get to become the best person he can but he will still need help when I die and that worries me.
ReplyDelete