Sheer coincidence
My brother died at the age of 39 from inoperable stomach and bowel cancer. He was a lot older than me, and had moved out and joined the Army before I was even born, so we were never really close. But still, I have a photo of him hanging on the wall, taken on the day he was promoted to Major in his regiment, not very long before the initial diagnosis. He was my bro', and I've always been so very proud of him.

Some time ago, I was in a dreadful state of debt. My house was about to be repossessed, making me homeless in the process, have my credit rating destroyed, everything I owned sold off until the debts were paid, and quite probably lose my job as well. Warrant sales are a bitch.

And the day came when the dreaded knock at the door turned out to be the initial representative from the bailiffs. A big, tough-looking bloke, who looked like he would be well capable of handling himself if the home-owners kicked off violent. I didn't - I had nothing left, I just let the guy in. He was very professional, doing an unpleasant job with calm and civility, and then he stopped, halfway mid-spiel. He was looking at the photo of my brother, hanging up in the hallway. He turned slowly to look at me and said: "That is Tony (Sasquatch), isn't it?"

"Yes, it is."
"D'you mind my asking - how did you know Tony?"
"He was my brother." I was, of course, completely confused by this point. Was this some sort of horrific Candid Camera set-up - what the hell was going on?
His posture and body language transformed instantly. "Fuck me, you're Tony (Sasquatch)'s little brother? He was my Captain for three years. Fucking decent bloke. Right, sod this, I'm not having his little brother made homeless. Here's what we're going to do..."

And he laid it all out for me. What I'd have to do - who I'd have to call, what I'd have to claim for, what forms to fill in, and what to put on them to get them through first time. He gave me names and phone numbers, shared every tip and trick of the trade with me, and promised he'd 'forget' to file the paperwork for my job for a couple of weeks, to give me time to get it all sorted. I'd have to put the work in, but it was the best chance I was going to get.

And it worked. It all worked. I lost the house, but got rehoused instantly by the council, kept all my stuff and my job. It didn't even wreck my credit rating, due to the way the handback of the house to the building society was processed. I was 24 hours away from being homeless and completely destitute, and this guy saved me from all that, because he thought he owed Tony one last favour.

Thanks Robert.
(Leo Sasquatch hates being the grown-up, Sun 5 Oct 2008, 17:05, 14 replies)

awesome
genuinely awesome
( applehead herp derp, Sun 5 Oct 2008, 17:11, closed)

Leo...
I enjoyed that one a lot.
( thealternativefact, Sun 5 Oct 2008, 17:15, closed)

Woah that's cool
would be a front runner for the amazing coincidence QOTW a while back too!
(bacontrout got ska, Sun 5 Oct 2008, 17:16, closed)

Wow
That is amazing.
(powervator and NONE SHALL PASS, Sun 5 Oct 2008, 17:23, closed)

That is
absolutely fantastic!
(Sir Clitherington Smythe offers him yourself., Sun 5 Oct 2008, 18:53, closed)

That was your big brother,
looking out for Li'l Bro.
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Sun 5 Oct 2008, 19:01, closed)

I'm not the emotional type, usually...
But reading that made me cram up inside.

Fuck.
(Miraclefish How appropriate, you fight like a cow, Sun 5 Oct 2008, 22:18, closed)

its not who you know, its how you know them
thats beautiful
(Roopy all is not what it seams, Sun 5 Oct 2008, 23:43, closed)

Snif
That's beautiful :)
(james_tiger_woods is going to start his killing spree on the, Mon 6 Oct 2008, 11:07, closed)

What I found heart-breaking
is that if you didn't have that photo up, or if you weren't Tony's brother - he would have kicked you out of your house no questions asked; it was just his job.

Poor bastards everywhere - I salute you.
(Che Grimsdale Best before:, Mon 6 Oct 2008, 11:13, closed)

Spot on
so, as a bailiff he goes around doing a nasty job fucking up peoples lives, but he could in fact choose to work on say the national debt helpline and share all these tips and tricks and help lots and lots of people. Then he would be a good person.
(Bazongaloid, Tue 7 Oct 2008, 16:11, closed)

Maybe
this incident turned his head and he does now spend his time helping out other in this predicament.

Lord knows there are going to be plenty of others like this very, very soon.
(Che Grimsdale Best before:, Wed 8 Oct 2008, 12:28, closed)

without condoning bastardness
someone has to do the bailiff job, and I suspect that the vast majority of cases are ones where some fucking numpty has got themselves in debt up to the eyeballs because they are thick as shit.

Sometimes bad things happen to good people but that shouldn't be taken out on some bugger doing his job.
( Vipros. clever got me this far, then tricky got me in, Wed 8 Oct 2008, 14:33, closed)

This
sort of thing. More of it please.

*clicks*

Oh, and I hope it's all going better for you these days :-)
( chart cat has an itch, Mon 6 Oct 2008, 11:34, closed)