For the three years I have lived here I have been attending the coffee hour, Bingo games and potluck suppers downstairs. As I have said before, only a handful of people go. They are always enjoyable social times with others who live here. A few months ago we had a new woman move in downstairs and ever since she has been whining about everything during these events. Now she has paired up with another woman who has lived here about five years who is not easy to get along with.
So yesterday, I was called to the manager's office and there were 4 others in the office, those two and my two neighbors from across the hall. Were there chairs for all of us? No, the troublemakers had their chairs, I had my walker to sit on and one had a mobility chair and one had to stand. Very rude if you ask me! Anyway, the manager wanted to discuss our "meeting" from last Friday.
It seems that the new woman is having a problem with the fact that I was taking over the money collected from our $2. dues and nobody else was asked or considered. And that the money is not in a bank account. She kept saying her church does not do it that way. Well, this group is like I said, a handful of people. We are lucky if we have 10 people at the suppers. And the money is used for buying coffee, paper towels, creamer, dish soap, etc. Plus if someone comes home from the hospital they are sent something like a flower arrangement, fruit basket, a plant, gift basket, etc. If someone, someone's spouse, child or grandchild dies a donation is made to a charity in their name.
It was a horrible meeting with our manager. She did listen and I thought handled it best she could. But no matter what, the other two women have told her lies about our meetings and about one of the women (the one who with her husband has been doing this since she came here). My two neighbors both left angry, one crying after trying to defend herself. She has health problems and lately has trouble coming up with the word she wants to say. The others, I felt were cruel to her.
I stayed. I talked a lot for me. I never lost my cool, so the manager listened to me. In the end, I can keep doing this and we can have our coffee hour and other activities. One of the things the manager thought (from those two) was that our coffee hour is a meeting about the building and management. It is not. It is about setting up the dates of our activities. It is about who will host the potluck supper then next month. It is about finding out if anyone has been in the hospital and when they are coming home and what to send them (some people can't have fruit baskets, some can't have plants or flowers, etc.). I explained that to her.