What is the Expiration Date on Human Decency?

My husband and I just welcomed our sweet little boy into the world. His coming was not an easy one. He was born blue and needed resuscitation after almost 36 hours of labor that ended in an emergency C-section. Four minutes later he took his first breath.

The next two weeks in NICU were not easy. There was significant trauma to the head and he experienced sometimes up to 24 seizures per day. There were times he stopped breathing completely and had to be resuscitated.

My husband and I were told that the home we were in the process of remodeling would have to be completed before the doctors would allow him to come home. My sweet parents, living forty-five minutes away, opened their doors to my son and me until the project was completed. My husband, family members, and neighbors rallied together in a herculean effort that touched me deeply.

Employers were extremely supportive and let my husband have more than a month off work. He would wake up at eight and work nonstop until midnight every day, sacrificing spending the first six weeks of his new son’s life with his new family.

My husband’s stress was compounded by the financial strain of finishing our home so his family could come home. As a result, things slipped through the cracks on occasion, no matter how hard he juggled. During this time we accrued over $1200 in overdraft fees from Wells Fargo Bank, all of which we made good on within a week.

In the past Wells Fargo had always been fair to us. We had no qualms with them. We thought the overdraft fee of $35 a bit steep but took our losses as they came. Many times they did forgive us our fees and we were grateful. We believed in human decency because they forgave us our mistakes. Not always, but enough that we still believed. Apparently, there is an expiration date on decency.

Not one of the $1200 in fees was forgiven during our family ordeal. We were instructed to call employees higher up the employment chain to see what could be done, if anything. To our shock and surprise, our requests were not only denied, but we were treated with disdain and scorn.

How sad to learn, amongst all the wonderful people who rallied for our son, and us, that the almighty dollar won out to the great Wells Fargo Bank. Enjoy your $1200; I hope the 5-course dinner you went to last night was worth