A brief background to the story: a week or so ago, my friend Cathy, with whom I traveled in Scotland in August, asked me to pray about her problems with her downstairs neighbors, who were extremely noisy and greatly disturbed her peace. Today, I received the following email from Cathy:
Mimi, I'm so so relieved and excited, I can't begin to tell you - a guy turned up at the door about an hour ago and rang the doorbell - I went and answered it. He said he was there to do a forced inspection of the downstairs flat. I left him to it and he went in with keys. One of the two guys who lives downstairs was there and I could hear them talking. About half an hour he came out again and went to his car. I ran down and said "Where are you from?" He was from the estate agents' who let the downstairs flat on behalf of the landlord. I said the people downstairs had been hellishly noisy for ages and I had been complaining to everyone who I could complain to. He said he was sorry to hear that "but you don't need to worry any longer because they'll be out by next Wednesday". YES!!!!!!!! UNBELIEVABLE!!!! He said he thought it was rent arrears, though they might also just be moving, because the tenant had a new flat in Chelmsford. I said "is that definite?" He said "Yes." He said, get this, "Your prayers have been answered! Have a wonderful day!" He drove away grinning at me. I cut loose and did a little dance in the street. I actually think that guy may have been an angel. (He was very good-lookin' too BTW.)
My prayers have indeed been answered, and yours (and those of others who I asked to pray for the same). Hallelujah!!!
Can you please post something about this on your blog? ... I am going to CC it to Jonathan because I would also like it posted there, if okay Jonathan, just as a way of saying: Thanks be to God! They have made my life miserable for a year with their constant, torturous racket, which has never let up - the TV or awful, intrusive music or a really loud, annoying computer game was always on or they were talking in loud, crass voices or banging doors. It made it so hard to pray quietly or get on with any writing or play music or do anything that needed thought. Plus I am almost certain they were dealing in drugs, which I really don't want to share a building with. There was something on the petty criminal level going on, that's for certain. It has been torturous, honestly - there has been no letup. And now they're gone! I have begged God day in day out for the situation to be solved and for solitude and peace and quiet and the answer was a great big fat Yes! (I've also prayed for the two of them, BTW, and asked God to bless them and look after them and grant them grace, etc.)
Plus I've now got contact details for the letting agent so I can at least ask them to let the flat to someone quiet and responsible who lives on their own, which they will hopefully do. Oh the joy!!!!!
See, there is hope Jonathan - these things move slowly but they move :-) Hurrah!
xx cathy
Cathy adds further:
After the guy left I had the impulse to go to my allotment to check on the bird feeders. I got in my car and Classic FM was blasting out Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony, the first movement, and if God had laid on a heavenly orchestra with Beethoven himself conducting it could not have been more expressive of my mood.
Hurrah!
xx cathy
Hallelujah!!! Thanks be to God!
I am so happy. I cannot say how relieved I am about this. In a way they seem like lost souls and I should perhaps have been more compassionate but it was hard to be with the constant barrage of irritating pointess racket and the fact that they would always hide rather than answer the door on the occasions I went to ask them to turn it down please. They were clearly people who cannot live except with a constant backdrop of loud noise. Anyway, the ordeal is now over. I have been praying for quite some time and Mimi and others joining in has clearly pushed the situation to a conclusion. Thank you, Mimi, for your mighty prayers, to which God appears to have instantly replied "Yes certainly Ma'am." And thank you God. Oh, I am so pleased :-D
ReplyDeleteIn my experience, Cathy, the upstairs tenant is almost always at a great advantage in such situations. I would have cut out the middleman and bought a drum set.
ReplyDeleteWho's the patron saint of intrusive lights? I know, I should go look it up. The place next door was recently lit up and looks like a prison yard at night. Maybe St. ??? and I need to have a word?
ReplyDeleteI would have cut out the middleman and bought a drum set.
ReplyDeleteLapin, that's an excellent idea, but given their general personalities and the workings of sod's law I suspect that they would probably have liked that.
Lapin, then Cathy would have to spend her free time playing the drums, which would seem a rather self-punishing sort relief to her plight.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, St. Lucy is the patron saint of the blind and those with eye disorders. I suppose she might intercede for a person with a problem with intrusive lights. It wouldn't hurt to try.
Thanks for visiting. Please, if you come again, sign a name, any name. Make one up. Thanks.
Grandmere, sorry. Anonymous was me, Bex. Forgot to fill in my name. Thanks for telling me about St. Lucy. I'll talk to her soon!
ReplyDeleteOh, hi Bex. No problem. I'll have a word with St. Lucy on your behalf, too.
ReplyDeleteLucy is often depicted holding her eyes on a tray. The legend goes that the Emperor Diocletian had them gouged out.
Great story. Pity all prayers aren't answered like that.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate that, grandmere. My prayers usually aren't answered in the way I want or expect, which only makes life more interesting. Sometimes the answers (God says, "well, duh") are hilarious.
ReplyDeleteI have no doubt that God has a sense of humor.
ReplyDeleteThis is great news! Cathy, I hope you get to experience true peace and quiet very soon. I will pray that the quiet atmosphere will endure.
ReplyDeleteThanksgiving, for Cathy's peace restored . . . AND prayers for her former neighbors (whose peace---inner peace---may be much more difficult to acquire).
ReplyDeleteJCF, yes. We must pray for peace for the people who need noise all the time and for their next neighbors.
ReplyDeleteJCF, indeed - as I say I have tried very hard to see them the way God sees them and have prayed for them but it has been difficult when the overriding impulse in every nerve at every moment is to scream "Aaaaaaargggh enough already, will the pair of you shut up!"
ReplyDeleteI should probably have gone downstairs and tried to be friendlier about it but most of the time when I knocked on the door they wouldn't answer (they wouldn't answer when anyone came to the front door either). I feel I may have missed an opportunity but I will continue to pray for them. :-(