(925) A contributing citizen

My fellowship group member, Winnie, is a person who was once voluntarily committed to an asylum but since recovered.

I don't want to give a wrong impression that there is no hope for all depressive cases turned psychotic. Winnie claimed that it was black magic aimed at her because of jealousy that caused her loss of sanity. I have no way of verifying this claim. Let us concentrate on what I have observed since the day she joined us at a "Bring your friend to hear about the Christmas story" event.

One thing I learn from providing transport to Winnie to enable her to attend fellowship meetings is that it is extremely hard for a recovered member to secure long term employment. Winnie has a decent Senior Cambridge certificate. The first job that she managed to keep for three months, after her release, was washing dishes at a nearby eatery. Each month when she had to turn up at the Government Clinic for her compulsory jab, she had to lie to get leave. By nature she is truthful, so when the boss found that she needed the jab because of her medical history, she was terminated.

There is a silver lining behind every dark cloud. For Winnie, the blessing came in the form of Eva, a retired social worker. Eva heard about how Winnie needed to start at seven in the morning to catch two buses, queue for half a day to wait for her turn to get that very important jab. After that, she had to battle after work traffic to get home. It actually took a whole day each month to keep herself well. Believe it or not, it was just about ten miles from Winnie's house to the Clinic. The compassionate heart of Eva went out to Winnie. Eva went to talk to her friend who is rich, this rich friend happened to be kind enough to donate thirty dollars a month: twelve dollars for taxi travel to Clinic, six dollars for food and drink, and remaining twelve dollars for taxi return. With this thoughtful financial provision, Winnie could cut the entire journey to half a day. That enabled her to keep her next job for one and a half years.

And so Winnie was gainfully employed. Slowly she opened up herself to us in the fellowship group and we find her a most delightful person to know. Through the years Eva did not stop at continuing to provide transportation allowance. She encouraged and advised Winnie to look for and keep employers who accept her past who are willing to write letters certifying her fit for employment. Eva managed to have Winnie registered at the local social welfare office. A thorough investigation was conducted. The proper paperwork was filed. Finally the State Social Welfare placed her on the permanent roll for welfare payment. If she could prove that she was employed, she would receive two hundred and forty dollars monthly. It may sound little to you, but to Winnie it was a heaven sent - a sizable amount. Even when she lost her job for three weeks due to her employer retiring, Winnie was given the second tier benefit of one hundred and eighty dollars for that particular month.


What I am recording here is not the bad result of  a medical history, but it is the resilient human spirit. With help and support from those around, a former psychotic patient could and does recover fully. It took love from Winnie's family members. It was concern that caused her friend to bring her to my group.  It was compassion that brought financial assistance. And finally it was special knowledge that enable Winnie to find state help so that she does not need to continue to remain a financial burden to her family members who are also poor themselves.