My neighbour K has, over the years, become a close friend of mine. We had babies together and share walks to school. It became clear that she had a drink problem, which she admitted, although it is ‘controlled’ to some degree – she tends to drink heavily evenings only – she works in the day.
Her husband works some night-shifts; several times over the years she has passed out to be found by her eldest (now 9) who goes next door to a lady T who happens to works for social services.
Tuesday at 9pm I had a call from K’s daughter who said ‘come quickly, something bad’s happened’. I ran round and K was terribly drunk. Turns out that she’d had T’s daughter (also 9) in for tea, when T came to pick her up at 8.30 she saw K was totally intoxicated and has said she will report her to social services.
K says this isn’t the first time someone has reported her. A work colleague got social services involved years ago which I wasn’t aware of. Of course, now she’s terrified of the repercussions and has asked me to say that I was there for the whole evening i.e. the children were supervised. She used to have her SIL over when her hubby was away, but obviously no-one’s there all night if something were to happen. She’s frantic with worry.
However, there is NO WAY I am going to lie to the authorities - the children know I wasn’t there, T’s daughter knows I wasn’t there. I know she’s desperate but I’m not going to compromise my morals. When she spoke to me about it I just said quickly ‘just tell the truth, these people are here to help families, not break them up. Yes, I WAS there for a little while and the children know that’. She replied ‘you’ve GOT to help me’.
I haven’t see her since this conversation, but I feel awful.
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