I Cried When I Learned Who Stole My Client

It took me a while to decide to write this post because I know we are not suppose to add emotion to our business but this time I did. I lost a client a couple weeks ago. She came to me 2 yrs ago. She and her husband were looking for a larger house. She ran a day care outside of the home she was living in and she wanted a larger place for her family to grow and for her to expand her day care into in an Islamic pre-school. We searched long and hard. Finally, we found a 6 brm, 3000 sq ft home that fit her needs perfectly. The home needed some elbow grease but it was still what the doctor ordered. We closed on the home in spring of last year and like the rest of my clients, we kept in touch. She was finishing up her masters in order to gain the accreditation she needed to for her pre-school. About a month ago, I ran into her in the supermarket and we spoke about the finishing touches. Nur Acedemy was ready to open its doors. Finally, she was realizing her dream. She was  preparing for her open house and so excited.

A couple weeks ago, I was awakened by the news. "A wife and mother of four was shot and killed in the Overbrook section of Philadelphia," was what I heard. I woke up fully to watch as this is my neighborhood. I've called this place home for the last 3 years this was just unheard of. As I watched further, I saw my client's picture flash on the screen followed by the reporter's account of what happened, "Hafeezah Nurid Din was leaving her mother's home and was caught in the crossfire of young men shooting....." I broke down. I couldn't listen anymore. She had just opened the doors of Nur Academy the week before. She was a pillar of the community. She was loving wife and mother of four beautiful babies with the youngest just a few months shy of his first birthday. She was a dedicated educator. Last, she was my client.

Two days afterward, I got a text message that the shooter turned himself in. I rushed to the news site to read the news and broke out in uncontrollable tears when I saw the shooter. I know him. I knew him. I thought I knew him. A 19 yr old young man on his way to college whom I've known since he was in junior high school. He stole my client. He stole a wife. He stole a mother. What's puzzling is that I've never known him to have a violent bone in his body. He shot. He missed. He took the life of another and now his life is gone as well.

So many emotions ran through me being attached in some way to them both. But the one thing that stood out to me is the fact that I sell homes in this community. The question came to my head of how I could continue to sell my wonderful community with such an act of violence that had just occurred. I struggled with this until today when I was driving around. Overbrook is still a lovely community. This is an isolated incident. And as I watched the children play and a group of young men walking down the street laughing and holding their books, my sense of safety was restored and I am again at peace with selling in Overbrook.

Enough my rambling. I just thought I would share. I guess the moral of my story is that: 1. It IS ok to let a little emotion in your business or else I would feel nothing and no need to do what I can to keep the doors of my client's school open. 2. Even the best of people can make a wrong decision and it doesn't make them monsters, it confirms they are human no matter how tragic. Also, God maybe using them to test your forgiveness meter. 3. A community can be so peaceful but it does not hold it above a few unfavorable isolated incidents. In the end, it's still good.....