THURSDAY 29 JUNE     LITCHFIELD

A massive problem for us surfaced today, after we had finished work.

B came to our camp, with a couple of letters she had found in their 4WD. Seemed boss 1 had collected them on their way back here on Tuesday, but had not bothered to give them to us. We were less than impressed, but not surprised by his lack of consideration.

They were two letters from the tenant – E – of our granny flat, at home. They had been written around the 12/6 – over two weeks ago! She said that our house sitter had fallen, in the kitchen, and broken her leg or ankle. Apparently tenant had not been home, so D had somehow gotten herself to the lady over the road – C. She called an  ambulance and D was taken to hospital.

Later, when E – who had keys – and C, went into the house to get together some things for D, in hospital, they found the place was filthy!

E said that she’d thought for a while that D was abusing medications. She reckoned D had been living on chocolate and biscuits.

There was cat mess about the place and the litter tray had not been cleaned out for a very long time – so cat had stopped using it!

It sounded absolutely dreadful.

The second letter indicated that C and E had done what they could to clean up the worst of the mess. They had found lots of packets of pills – painkillers and sedatives, and a number of prescriptions for same. It was clear to E that D had been doing the rounds of a lot of doctors, over quite a wide area, obtaining these.

Apparently D’s ex-husband had turned up, from Tasmania, to take over her house sitting duties and was staying in the house. E wrote that she thought/hoped he was OK!

Since all that was nearly three weeks ago, we lost no time in rushing up to the cafe, to phone E. Explained the mail delay and thus why she had not heard back from us, until now. Said we would have a think about the situation and get back to her. She said that D was still in hospital – apparently an addiction to opoid based painkillers was a bigger problem than the broken limb! E believed her hospital stay could be a long one.

What an abuse of the trust we placed in the woman!

Now we had a big dilemma. Did we stop work here and go home? What else could we do? Neither of us was prepared to keep a total stranger staying in the house, even if he was willing. As we’d had no communication from him, we had no idea of his circumstances anyway.

I felt a mix of angry, sick, apprehensive – just plain worried.