As part of my work we occasionally take our service users out on day trips. Today was one of them occasions. We visited a beautiful village in North Yorkshire called Botton.
As we strolled along a familiar face appeared amidst the group of people that were approaching us. She looked at me hesitantly and in the few seconds that it took me to process the information, I remembered her.
She had been in the organisation for many years before me and was a very attractive but lonley lady: a victim of an abusive, adulterous relationship and after her divorce spent many years single, sad and desperately wanting to share her life with someone. That never happened. She eventually left in order to seek out a mate. Consequently she was disfellowshipped.
I called her name and she approached me with her head bowed, she of course presuming that I was still an active JW.
Long story short....She met and married the man she left the organisation for and looked as beautiful as she did before. She also looked really happy and introduced me to him. We arranged to meet up later on in the day when I expected that we could exchange moans and groans about the past and revel in our newly found freedom.
Not so. She is intending to go back! Certainly the wind was knocked out of my sails! I have never met with or had a conversation with anybody that after having left and found freedom would ever dream of returning! She still spoke JW language and I began to feel a little uneasy in her company from then on.
After we parted, I had mixed emotions. I felt sad for her that despite her struggles to find happiness, she was still trapped and not free from the strong ties that have held her for years. I also realised that what I have found within my freedom is so precious to me. I should never take it for granted nor presume that others would share the beauty of it with me.
Bay64me