INSPIRATIONAL SHOT- In Spite Of The Fire And The Rent, What She Did Surprised Everyone

Joanne said, “I had been in business for a while. Those were ten years of good and bad moments. I left a paying job to venture into business. They were two completely different terrains; for the job, your salary comes periodically, while in business, you could go for days without sales but you can as well kill it in one particular day. So, there were bad days that could break a lion’s heart owing to poor activities and there were good ones that could raise butterflies in Cinderella’s belly. Even though I had my fair share of good moments, I wore some of the key bad ones like scars on my mind. I remember the day I received a distressed phone call that my shop was on fire. I grabbed a wrapper and tied it over my bosom because I was still in my nightwear. When I approached the street where my shop was, I saw a very bright flame puffing a thick black smoke into the night sky. There were silhouettes of people in the bedlam trying to quench the fire. By the time the fire was put out, I had lost essentially every stock in the shop. It was a black night illuminated by the fire to present a glowing skyline. Unfortunately, there was no beauty in this destruction and I had no fire insurance on my stock. It was an eye opener for me.”

She continued, while I listened, “I walked us back by two years to replay this sad moment. But things had been looking up since that sad incident. I was picking up gradually and getting back to where I was before the fire incident. Then, out of the blue came the COVID-19 pandemic that forced all economic activities to be shut down. I saw my business moving from the ‘outpatient’ to the ‘intensive care unit(ICU)’. While I was still trying to save my business from being declared an emergency, my landlord threw in his demand for rent. It was a crazy situation for me. I had a false notion that I was near recovery but the pandemic and my landlord put in a concerted effort to disabuse this faulted thinking- a notion that was under life support on arrival. I got home that day and left a heap of myself on the bed. There was no one to go to; the few I would have gone to had supported me throughout the trial period(immediately after the fire incident) and during the lockdown. The landlord gave me till the end of the month, otherwise, he would serve a quit notice to me.”

Joanne paused for a while to attend to her phone and then went on, “While the countdown was on, I tried talking to a couple of family and friends to see what advice they had for me. One told me it was not possible to exit me with a short notice while the other unrolled the sermon on the mountain detailing how it was wrong to evict me during a pandemic. The only option I had was to raise money by selling my goods but because of the fire incident and the lockdown, I was left with only old versions of products in stock. When there was no help in sight, I started preparing to leave instead of facing an embarrassing eviction. On the 25th day of the subject month, knowing I had five more days, I cleaned up my house and created a space for my goods and other items in the shop. Sleep served my eyes a divorce letter. I would roll on end in the bed at nights searching for a way to root out my challenges and start afresh. Two days to the deadline, I fell sick. By this time, I could barely eat- I had completely lost my appetite for anything edible. I was a walking dead.”

In closing, she said, “As the hours ticked, I felt that tether that bound me to hopelessness pulling me closer. I was not visiting the shop any longer- i just stayed home and wandered in oblivion. Incidentally, on the eve of the deadline, I was in bed reminiscing about the good old times when I left my job and went into business. They were filled with hopes of better and amazing things to come. How things went wrong, I could not say. While I was lost in those thoughts my phone rang;
Me: Hello
Caller: Hello. Is this Joanne?
Me: Yes
Caller: I was told by my customer that you have some old models of phones that we need
Me: (my heartbeat was already kicking against my rib cage) Yes
Caller: Can you supply about 200 cartons to us? We need them as control specimen for a very important project

By this time, I was already struggling to hear the caller clearly; my heartbeat was pounding so much that my eardrum could barely have space for another sound. I quickly changed position and placed my left palm on my chest as if I could hold my heartbeat.

Me: Hello, Hello, Hello…(I repeatedly said with a tensed voice)
Caller: I am with you. Send me the direction of your office. We need these urgently. See you tomorrow

The line went dead. I could not believe it. I started screaming like a mad man. One of my neighbours came to check on me- they did this at the slightest noise because they were concerned I could be thinking suicide. When I told him, we started dancing together. I knew it was wrong to count my chickens before they hatched but I went out in the cold night and had some fresh fish and a bottle of beer. I thought, “we only die once”

REFLECTION
Always remember that today, which is the present, is the tomorrow that you worried about yesterday. When you worry too much, it denies the mind, the ‘oxygen’ that it needs for better thinking and strategy. Instead of worrying, search for opportunities and grab them the moment you sense any. Joanne supplied over 200 cartons of the products that had been with her for over one year lying fallow. Nobody wanted those but on the day that it mattered most, someone came knocking. She used the money to bring in some newer models and business has been booming. By the way, the landlord got his rent and some bottles of chilled beer from Joane.

I don't know what challenges that stare you in the face. But just like Joanne, help will come when it matters most.

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