as some of you may recall, we had our cafe blessed on monday. it was poetic and lovely and faith-affirming and much needed, for which blessing we will be forever grateful. in case you were wondering, fr. chuck ate a medium combo (with blueberries in two hotcakes, scrambled eggs, sausage) while i dined so daintily on my oatmeal with blueberries and bananas. my server "susan" waited on us.
susan is a 16 year-old homeschooled student because she had a difficult time with the kids at her high school. she hostessed for me during the week and was wonderful in the very beginning but her initial alacrity in having a job seemed to seemed fade a bit and she became moody and oftentimes, out of sorts. monday was no different - she was in a major *funk* and i tried speaking with her prior to my leaving for the day, but she wasn't forthcoming with any information. of interest to note, she was wearing a sweatshirt because she was "freezing." my other server had been telling me that she has been "off" for a few weeks now, but i just chalked it up to problems at home (all 16 year-olds have them, right?) and as long as her work wasn't affected terribly by it, she was okay with me.
i went to mass this morning and enjoyed it tremendously. some days, i am just happy to be there, tired as i was. as soon as i got into the car, i heard the "you have a voice mail" sound on my cell phone and it was my husband telling me that susan didn't make it in by 8:30 and it is now 9:00 and what do we do? i called her home and left a message and jim called her mom's cell phone and left word with her that she was no where to be found.
long and short of it: i waited tables and cooked today. it was blistering hot (108 heat index) and as soon as jim had enough prep done, i hit the floors and took orders. then i ran back and made them. this went on from 9:15 to 2:15. i am a tired puppy.
susan's mom called me around 2:00 and started by saying "i was going to ask how you were doing, but i won't..." and proceeded to tell me that susan was in a rehab 9 months ago, had been attending AA meetings 7 nights/week and had fallen in with another "bad crowd." she gave her an ultimatum at home and unfortunately, she chose the wrong one and left the house; her mother hasn't seen or heard from her in two days. a little bit of tough love but you gotta do what you gotta do - they had to be strict with her and put boundaries in place like "if you are going to drink and drug again, you cannot live here." sounded reasonable to me. she was just so sorry that she hadn't even called us to tell us she wasn't coming in/working for us/whatever.
i asked if we could do anything and she said "please pray for us." i said "i can do that, but i can no longer employ your daughter." she understood.
did i mention this child is 16 years old?
did i mention she was my hostess/"go to girl" full-time? i really relied on herm but also genuinely cared about her; i wanted her to succeed and she even started serving for me part-time.
*sigh*
i can see it two ways: (a) the prayers that were said on monday weren't all that effective in blessing us OR (b) the initial prayer of deliverance and the prayers that followed in succession did exactly what they were supposed to do.
i find it difficult to feel sorry for myself in this situation when a 16 year-old girl i care about is out there, drinking and doing drugs, after having had help and sought help for a long while. addiction is a sad, sad place for anyone to be, let alone a teenager.
Lord, have mercy on me and bless her.
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