Life's Little Zingers

Last night was pretty routine in Malibu until about 10:30 PM when I received a call concerning the residents who were the subject of my "Channeling George Reeves" blog post of July 3. It appears that the nine-year-old was fighting with her mom again. So, I had to respond to the call (they were disturbing the condo complex's manager, who lives next door).

I got there quickly enough and the girl answered the door. I spoke with her for a while and then was let in. For the next hour, I ended up mediating the dispute between her and her mother. For a nine-year-old, the girl has a great grasp of the English language (her mother told me today that she reads about 400 pages a day) and she gave her arguments in a lucid fashion. Much of the problem between the two stems from a nasty divorce and custody battle (been there, done that).

Thanks to letting both give their sides and letting them work out a "truce," peace was again restored to Zuma Beach.

After this, her mother joined me over at the complex's clubhouse patio area (I had to check it anyway) and we sat and talked for a while. She and I have gotten close over the past few weeks, although I decided a week ago to back off a bit as she had enough on her plate and I didn't want to add any more to her current burdens. Both she and her daughter have become attached to me.

We discussed losing parents, life experiences and her current custody battle and financial situation (I hooked her up with an attorney friend today). She also told me that she was once a Playboy model. No wonder she looks good for 47 (I thought she was about 35 when we met).

I find myself more and more fortunate as I have met people with chronic illnesses recently, some pretty serious. One friend has stage 3 kidney disease (although looking at her one would think she's the picture of health), another has a daughter with one of the worst forms of childhood leukemia and this one from Zuma has lupus. (Lupus is an autoimmune disease, not an infectious disease like HIV. People with lupus have an overactive immune system. The body's defenses actually attack healthy tissues and organs.)

This only shows that no matter how bad one may feel things are going for them, someone else has serious matters far worse to deal with. The best the rest of us can do is to just be a friend.