What happens if a drunken person drives and knock a cyclist down, and the cyclist got seriously injured and as a result, fell into depression, lost his job, his friends and his income? The drunken man is slapped with a fine and gets a jail term of 6 months. After 6 months, one man has paid for his consequences and one man is still reeling.
What if a husband with a highly paid job divorces his wife and takes the children and house along with him after paying his wife her rightful share. She does not have the ability to feed the kids as a single mom and so relinquishes her children. What if the wife has devoted the last 10 years of her life to the family and had no large savings nor career to speak of? The man later remarries someone else.
What I want to know is, how do the cyclist and the divorced wife live the first 3 months in their new state?
Do they get mad at the perpetrator, even if he had made the necessary compensation? Is compensation enough?
Do they blame themselves for not being 'careful', 'smart', and to see it coming?
Do they just 'get over it' because what's past is past, so let's get the party started!
Do they ask God 'why me????'
Do they just decide that life is not fair and get bitter?
Do they look outside their 5th floor window one quiet night and with their tear streaked face, wondered if life is really that worth living after this.
I really don't know how to offer answers to life changes as a direct or indirect consequence of someone's actions. These scenarios are a little different from sad stories involving sickness and poverty. I know of real people in the two situations above and they are doing well now. What I do wonder is, what were the initial months like? How do they get over the pain that someone's decision can plunge them into such darkness, even if the harm wasn't deliberate. Did people tell them to get over it, or forget the past?
