It was in early 2001 that I met her. I was married and actually quite happy with my home life. We were now a childless couple as both the boys had moved away. Our eldest had joined the army and our youngest was living in Toronto at a university residence. Life was good, predictable but good.
Terry was well known for her strict religious beliefs. At 5’ 10” tall and very thin she was not exactly body beautiful. On top of that her hair looked more like one of those old mops you would see grandma using to wash the kitchen floor. And just to finish her off she had an extreme case of facial acne. In other words she was not my idea of a sexy woman.
She did have a few redeeming features. She was very tall and, despite her poor choice of the dowdiest clothing possible, had a lovely ass. More important to me at the time was she was a hard worker. Terry was the kind of person that once she knew what the goal was would work like a dog to make it happen. And she was intensely loyal to me.
I guess after a while a few people had made comments around her about her looks and I was met in my office by her the first thing in the morning. She was clearly upset and had been crying. She eventually explained that she had overheard one of the cleaners who works out of our office tell another co-worker that he thought Terry was a dog.
Well I had two choices. Be honest and tell her the truth or follow the corporate dictates and just appear caring and do nothing. Stupid me chose wrong again. I tried to do what I thought was the right thing. I pointed out her good parts (a major corporate no no) and suggested she consider looking after the bad parts. I suggested a good facial-cleansing regimen to look after the acne and a trip to a proper hair stylist to get her mop turned back into hair. And dummy that I am even suggested she update her wardrobe at least from the 50’s to the 90’s.
Well that went over like a lead balloon and she didn’t speak to me for three days. To be honest I felt bad about this. I don’t like to hurt people. I also hate it when other people feel they have to criticise someone for being what they are. Sometime over the three days Terry was so pointedly ignoring me I resolved to somehow turn this ugly duckling into at least a duck if not a swan.
I tired to be subtle. If Terry came in and did a good job with a project I made sure she received the proper accolades. Once she came in on a day off wearing a nice conservative top and obviously new jeans. I tried to make it seem like a normal offhand compliment but Terry was seemingly taken quite aback by a simple “Wow you clean up well when you aren’t at work.” It was one of the first times I had ever seen her shit ass grin. It made her look a lot prettier than I would have thought possible.
Well the years went by in a hurry. Somehow my wife and I grew apart to the point where we separated and were in the midst of talking divorce. This was a difficult time for both of us and I frankly was not in the mood to help anyone else like Terry.
Life had changed for her as well. Like all of us she was a little older (46) and yet somehow she had changed. The constant preaching about the benefits of her church and what I referred to as the God Squad activities had almost stopped. Her hair was now decently quaffed into tight curls and her face had cleared up. Okay she still won’t win a beauty contest you wouldn’t call her a beast.
Terry had acquired a dog for her morning walks and seemed fairly content with her life. She even brought the dog to work one day and I had to admit seeing how happy she was with her new best friend was a nice thing to see. Early in the spring of 2003 I had just arrived at work about 5:30 AM when Terry called. Her dog had been killed by an another dog (a pit bull) owned by a local drug dealer near her apartment. She was totally distraught and begged me to come to her home to help her get through the police investigation.
