Imagine getting up to go to work one day and doing an awesome job like you always have for 34 years and getting assaulted by a customer in the middle of your shift.

Imagine receiving little to no support from management or security during said incident.

Imagine having to go to the hospital for your injuries and 3 days later having to go back to work in the same place.

Imagine the PTSD any time a customer might raise their voice or approach you agitated.

Imagine that two weeks go by dealing with that and you are randomly called to HR because they are suspending you while investigating the incident for an undetermined amount of time.

Imagine sitting in that time vacuum at home waiting for a call about your future after 34 years of complete loyalty to your company wondering how your job is in question when you were a victim of assault.

Imagine a week later that you are told they are terminating you for a failure to de-escalate a situation. A situation that was YOUR assault.

Imagine knowing that your whole pension could be gone.

Imagine knowing that you were due a couple thousand dollar bonus very soon from a union signing that you will now not receive.

Imagine that you then have to let your union fight for you to get your job back and that process takes FOUR weeks. A month.

Imagine that you have to be on edge for a month waiting for their decision day after day and week after week on whether or not they will take you back when YOU were a victim of assault while on their clock.

Imagine in the meantime that you try to claim unemployment to try and have some form of income coming in only to find out that due to identity theft back in 2020 that you are currently blocked from doing so until you go through a ton of extra steps and have to wait longer because the state did not let you know any of this back when it happened.

Imagine that after the four weeks, your union gets back to you and says that they were not able to get your job back because "legal was too worried that hiring you back would hurt them in a potential lawsuit from the person that assaulted you." Read that quote again. Imagine the emotional and mental toll of that.

Trish doesn't have to imagine any of this. This has been her life since the end of January. She got her job straight out of high school and worked it to the best of her ability for 34 years. Now at the age of 53 finds herself a victim of assault, unemployed and discarded by a company simply because they are afraid of liability in case the assaulter files one against them, and unable to even claim unemployment so far. Anyone who knows Trish knows that she is the definition of a give you the shirt off her back kind of person. She is all about her kids, family and friends. She would do literally anything for her loved ones. She deserves absolutely none of what she has been put through and continues to go through.

Trish would never openly ask for or accept financial assistance from others just like most of us. She is just not that person. But the walls are definitely closing in on her financially. She is trying to look for a new job for the first time since high school while not receiving unemployment yet, dealing with PTSD from her assault, dealing with PTSD from being so royally wronged by her former employer, and she has bills that are going to be due soon enough.

I would do anything I could to help Trish through this and I know that many other people would as well. I also think that her story needs to be out there because it really is just so unreal on so many levels. I'm looking to try and buy her at least a month or two to hopefully be able to find a new job, get unemployment up and running and honestly just process these last 2 1/2 months without a gun pressed to the side of her head like it has been. Any amount would help and there is nothing too small or too big. Thank you so much for your time reading this this and any help that you might be able to or willing to provide Trish.

Sincerely,

Matt