Once I got out of hospital, I finally decided to leave my baby daddy. He told me he wouldn’t support our child anymore. I didn’t care; I made my own money and could support us both. But for the first time I was broke on the 20th of October. I was usually balling around this time of the month because he would give me money for the baby. But this time I was at home, drinking tea.

What a terrible time to stop drinking, I thought.

I was invited to a wedding; my family forced me to go. I could feel myself slowly being tempted to drink, but I didn’t. I didn’t want to celebrate prematurely but this was the best feeling ever. What an amazing time to be alive!

I took all my books and doctor’s reports and put them in my handbag. I preferred bigger bags where I could just put everything inside. I could feel my heart pounding and the angels rejoicing as I made it out of the wedding without touching anything alcoholic. The final challenge was to face my boss on Monday.

The bad thing about returning to work was that the last time they saw me I was very drunk. We had a team-building event at Misty Hills and I could not remember most of the things I said or did. One thing I remembered though was that I kept telling everyone, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.”

So I went to work on a Monday the 21st of October and had to face my boss and tell her what had happened. She was threatening to fire me. She had previously given me forms for the doctors to complete and she seemed disappointed that I brought them back. Part of me felt like this woman thought I was lying, and she wasn’t expecting me to bring back the forms. She thought I would come up with excuses as I did after my previous episode.

My first day at work was terrible. I had Nik Naks and sweets for lunch. I had never been this broke in my life. I went to the garden and called Lucky, my high school crush. I decided to pursue our relationship after finding out that Zoe’s dad was cheating on me. We spoke on the phone. He was also broke, but we laughed about it.

After admiring nature in the in the garden where I usually spent my lunch hour, I went back to the office. My conversation with Lucky had healed me. It felt good to have someone to talk to. I thought we could finally understand each other now. I wouldn’t let Zoe’s dad ruin this for me. I felt like a 16-year-old girl again. This was the most amazing feeling.

During our telephone conversation Lucky called me ‘Mama ka Oros’. I loved it when he called me that. I could now feel the chemistry between us.

It was a messed up day, I walked from Braamfontein to Bree Street. When I got to Bree Street, I took the wrong taxi and ended up having to walk about 5km to get home. When I got home I finally took a bath and played with my daughter until she fell asleep.

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Tell us: Have you ever so broke that you had to walk to get to work or school?