After almost 2 years of silence, now it is time to restart! (Part 1a, the worst time in my life)

bycarmenholm

273 followers

2 years ago

It feels like it's been ages since we last connected! I hope life has been treating you kindly.

Since January 2023, life threw a series of unexpected family finances and health issues my way, both my original family in HK and my newly developed family in Madrid.

First, my sister was being scammed seriously, and both financial and psychological were hurt deeply. I was able to help her stop the "bleeding" immediately and create a long-term financial plan to return back all the loans she had to bear even though she was a victim. It was very hard to deal with lawyers and police, gather evidence, and prepare all the paperwork. In the end, we were able to protect something, but the legal system was not able to protect her from all the relevant financial loss. The debt is huge. It will take her the next 5 to 7 years to pay them all.

But the worst of all is the mental suffering. Money comes and goes; we earn it, and we either spend it or lose it here and there, and we still always can earn it back ... but the mental hurt is something deep and hard to recover. It will take a long, long way to heal.

At least I am grateful that we found an unaffordable organization for regular psychological counseling.

6 months later, in the summer, I had to fly back to my hometown, Hong Kong, when my mother fell and was hospitalized. It was a super intense 2 weeks taking care of her with different doctor appointments and changing the home setting to fit in her new physical needs, walking with a walking frame. At the same time, I have to work at my full-time job as the only colleague on my team has just resigned, and I also want to save my annual leave for the planned summer vacation. Even though it is hard, I am so grateful that the remote working style allowed me to keep my work moving. It was very, very intense as every day I was in very high physical demand.

However, the reward was unexpectedly great. I was slimmer in just 2 weeks when I got back to Madrid. It was the beginning of summertime, and I was in the best body shape to enjoy my "long-time-no-wear" summer shorts/ skirts!! :P

That's it for now. I will continue with my next post!