So, at my DSP job, I was recently moved to a new house, three ladies, and I quickly learned that apparently, all of the long-time staff at that house had been fired a few years ago and that was why staffing there was so chaotic. And um... holy fuck.
I'll start this by saying that the two clients who were there before this overhaul, B and F, they are not messy people. Sure, F's storage is kind of disorganized, but her floor is always clear, her room is clean, she can find what she needs, and there's never any real problem because her stuff being on display and easily accessible to her is not a problem. The other one, B, her room is very clean, her draws are organized- it literally says in her file that she not only likes cleaning her room, but that she NEEDS her space to be clean to function. I'm not sure about the other two, but why that doesn't matter will become apparent in a moment.
Apparently, a bunch of the permanent staff at the house would decide that B or F had too much stuff in their room, or it was too disorganized or messy, or that they just wanted to be cruel, and they would go in with a box after the ladies left for their workshop and just pile a bunch of their belongings in and take it all to the basement. And it wasn't just random papers or something- it was stuffed animals, books, dolls, sentimental items, things like a birthday card from someone they love or letters from friends, even fucking valuables and jewlery. And these ladies would come home to find their items fucking stolen, no idea where they were (and the basement is entirely innaccessible to B, F can technically get down there but should have help with the stairs,) and no way of getting them back or having them returned. Can you imagine that? Going to work every day knowing that when you come home, something you love very dearly has been stolen from you and you may never see it again? One of the residents still takes her most important belongings, gifts from her mother, with her every single day because that was what she needed to do to protect them. When the current manager joined the team, she saw this happening, reported it, and there was a huge investigation. Most people got fired, the rest quit to avoid getting fired. And afterwards, my boss bought up dozens of boxes filled with the residents's items and returned everything she could find to its proper owner. There are still some things down there she missed, though, because it's a big unfinished basement (and she's also worried there might be stuff in the attic, but she really hopes not because the attic is unsafe to walk through) with a billion places to hide things.
And why did I learn this? Well, I found a box in the basement labelled with the name of someone I knew to be a former resident- we'll call her N. And it was like, a big tub. I also found a shoebox full of her jewellery, which I figured might be very important to get to her. I bought it up to my boss, she told me about the box situation, and I was given permission to look through the basement to see if I could find any boxes of resident's belongings that she hadn't so they could be returned to their proper owners. I found a few tubs of R's stuff that will be sent to her new home (and I straightened the papers in her bins, which had been thrown in hapazardly like garbage and left to wrinkle and tear,) and I found this other carrying case for jewellery. All the ladies have jewellery, so I looked through it to try and find out who it belonged to. And while I noted some items that looked deeply sentimental, like stuff she got from her family and even what looked like an heirloom item, what mattered to me was that I found a necklace with a name I didn't recognize, and another necklace with an initial corresponding to the same name- let's call her E. I'd never heard about E, so I sent a text to my boss asking if there was a former resident named E, or if any of the residents knew someone named E.
The response was that E was a former resident. She passed away years ago. I didn't ask for a cause, but I did later find out that most of E's stuff had been returned to living family as per her will, and that this jewellery would as well. And it makes me wonder- did E know this box was down here? Did she put it down there, in that tiny closet, so far back you had to really be searching to see it? Simply concealed with the intent to return for it, only to never be able to? Or was it like several other boxes I found in that closet, stolen from a resident's bedroom without their knowledge or consent and hidden away from them where they couldn't find it or get to it? Had this been stolen from E and she had died never knowing where it was? And if N had met her fate several months ago, when she needed a vital surgery for the functioning of the two most vital organs in her body, would she have ever known what became of the obviously-sentimental items I found? For N, luckily, she's alive and her items will be returned to her to sort through and do with as she pleases (I threw nothing away, not even if it was ripped or stained paper, because it's N's property and thus her decision.) But If E didn't know that box was down there and it was stolen from her, she died not knowing where it was, without ever getting it back. And again, several items were clearly sentimental. Things she might have missed dearly, from people like her grandmother who was probably dead for decades. Just because someone was on a fucking power trip and decided E needed less stuff.
I hope that's not the case, that E just put it down there and it was never retrieved but she knew where those items were (though it didn't escape my attention that many of the ring boxes in that case were empty, but maybe they were empty when she packed the case. I hope.) But no matter what... Jesus Fucking Christ. How can you do that to someone?
