Resignation, Red Tape, Renewal
And so there you have it. I submitted my resignation this summer. If you are unfamiliar with my story check out my blog at www.pegwithpen.com. All future postings by me will be funneled through BustED Pencils – together we are stronger.
I’ve been MIA this summer via social media and pretty much any methods of contact. And I feel I owe quite a few folks in explanation – so here it goes. On May 1st I received a phone call that my mother had fallen and broken both wrists. A social worker at the hospital proceeded to tell me that my mother would undergo surgery the following day and then be placed in rehab. My father would be placed in assisted living. My oldest sister (52) with special needs would be placed in a group home. I said – no way in hell.
I got on a plane to Missouri and remained there all of May taking care of my family. One day I was completing what I believed would be my last year of teaching (actually testing) in the public schools and the next day I was officially done, prematurely, with my teaching career. There were no goodbyes. Just a void.
In June I returned to Colorado with my family and cared for them in my home with the help of my husband and my boys until early July. I know a lot about home health care now. I also know a lot about systems – systems to support my special needs sister, systems to help the elderly, the injured, and those with dementia.
Let me give you one example of my new learning. I attempted to enroll my sister in a day program here in Denver because she is accustomed to working full-time in Missouri. We had done our best to fill out the appropriate paperwork. Upon trying to enroll her they told my mother she had not done all the paperwork. Many of the items she needed to complete the process sat 12 hours away in a lock box in Missouri. As a result, we would have to pay a hefty daily fee if my sister was to attend. We decided to try one half day because she desperately needed the socialization. I dropped her off, and an hour later had a phone call from one of the staff members stating that my sister had flipped off the staff and tried to run away. Remember the kindergartner on the first day of school? Sometimes they throw a fit? This was the scenario in a sense. She was not invited back. If we had the paperwork done, they would have been required to adjust and evaluate how to help her transition into the program. Instead, with a very cold tone, I was politely told by the director not to come back.
There is red tape everywhere you go. Much of this red tape is harmful.
In rehab if my mom did not work hard enough, they said she would have to leave early. If she worked too hard, they would then release her early. It was a dance via insurance to keep her in as long as necessary to allow her to recover.
Red tape, connected to money, connected to systems, speak to a much more powerful entity, called capitalism, a system that many of us truly do not understand – specifically in re: to its methods of madness during a crisis. Trying to muddle through the red tape Resignation, Red Tape, Renewal | BustED Pencils: