The Nanny Diaries, Part 2

Well, honestly, the odd behavior started earlier.

Brent's mother, Carol, arrived here the Tuesday before Easter. The day was incredibly chaotic for many reasons. And, to make a long story quite short, my engagement ring "went missing" (as they call it here). I noticed that I wasn't wearing it for much of Tuesday, but I didn't think anything of it. Not until Wednesday when I returned from Chloe's playgroup in the AM did I really set to look for it. And it just didn't appear. The whole house was turned upside down, with the exception of the master bedroom.

Stella had been in between apartments so she had been staying in our guest room quite often. But the week Carol arrived, Stella was here and then she wasn't and her plans kept changing -- one minute she'd say she was staying the night, and the next, she was headed out the door. I didn't think much of it at the time.

You get lots of warnings around here about staff stealing things. Sometimes it's small things like toys or underwear...yes, underwear! Other times it's serious, like passports and large stashes of cash. But we had never had any problem at all with Stella. Nothing. The fact that my ring was missing caused great confusion in me because I honestly couldn't imagine Stella taking it. But what other explanation was there? And believe me, I created so many explanations in my head that it was going to explode. People all told me I was crazy, that OF COURSE Stella took it...it didn't just walk away! And Stella is the only household help I have, so she's the only one implicated. Still I had a very hard time imagining her doing it.

She played innocent. We never accused her. We just looked and looked and involved her in the process. She left the house on Wednesday night to visit friends, and I really thought that Thursday morning, I would have my ring back. We thought that maybe she had gone out to retrieve the ring from wherever it was. But no, Thursday AM, the ring wasns't anywhere.

Finally, I made up a story that I had to report the ring loss to the police because we would have to file an insurance claim in the States and they would require the police report. In addition, because of the value of the ring, the US Embassy would have to conduct an investigation, and since Stella worked in the house, they would have to get information from her. I told Stella that it would be much "nicer" if I got the information from her instead of the Embassy because they wouldn't necessarily treat her well. So, I got the names and phone numbers of everyone she had spoken to on her cell -- dialed and received calls -- in the last 48 hours. I got the contact info for her landlord, her last several employers, etc. etc. She was very very nervous, but still played innocent. I felt awful. But I never once accused her.

I left that morning to do errands and such, and stop at the police station to make my report. A couple of hours had passed and my next stop would be the Cantonmnets Police Station. But my phone rang. It was Carol. The ring had been found! Where? Exactly where EVERYONE had told me the ring would show up. Under our bed! (Apparently, I'm not the only one who has experienced "missing" jewelry) But at that point in time, our "bed" was simply a king-sized mattress on the floor. The mattress is insanely heavy, so how would the ring get there? Not to mention that my last recollection of having the ring was in the kitchen cooking, and taking it off because I was getting my hands really gross with fish and stuff.

Intense relief. Incredible disbelief.

That weekend, Stella was supposed to accompany us to the beach for the holiday weekend. Thursday afternoon, she bowed out. Good Friday is a Ghanaian holiday, so we didn't see her again until we returned from the Coast. I really didn't even know if we would see her again, but she had left many things at the house, so I thought we probably would.

The following week, Stella wasn't herself. Just dragging. Napping. Being very quiet. I thought that maybe she was feeling a bit depressed about the whole ring thing. Knowing that even though she had never been accused, she was under question. Even though the ring was recovered, and even though there was no proof that Stella had actually done anything, she knew that the trust had been shaken. Anyway, so I didn't think too much about it. One night, she came downstairs at about 9:30PM while we were all in the living room, and she was clearly crying. She made up some story about her uncle and asked to use my phone as her phone was out of "units". When I followed up with her about her uncle days later, she dismissed the whole thing.

When the next week, she was still dragging through her day and spending a great part of the day sleeping on the kitchen floor, I insisted that she go to the Dr. The thought had crossed my mind that perhaps she was pregnant, but as I had asked her why she didn't move in with her boyfriend, Carlos, her answer was that if she moved in with him he would never marry her, and since she's so very "CHRISTIAN", I dismissed the idea.

So, off to the 37th Military Hospital we went. Thinking that Stella could pick up the health insurance card we had gotten for her in January and just walk into the clinic...