Dallas, Texas
Entering the large, open storage and dressing room on Friday morning, Sue Ellen was surprised and thrilled by the scene that greeted her. "Welcome back"; "it's lovely to see you again"; "you look wonderful"; "you should have brought that darling little boy of yours in with you"; listening to the flurry of pleasant comments and observing her former and now current co-workers faces, she couldn't help but grin. It was nice to feel like she had been missed and that her presence now was more than welcome. She had always enjoyed the work she did for the women's charity and she had always enjoyed working with both the other employees and the clients they were assisting. The goal of the charity was to help vulnerable and/or inexperienced women in dressing the part for the working world so that they could better themselves by getting professional jobs, allowing them to earn their own money and become confident and self-sufficient.
Working for a charity of her choosing, one that wasn't associated with the DOA, was liberating and humbling; she was there to put in an honest day's work and she genuinely cared about the cause; it was nothing more and nothing less than that. Here, she was just Sue Ellen, not Mrs JR Ewing or a former Miss Texas; she did her job and her reward for doing so was the pride, happiness and satisfaction she felt when the women she was assisting thanked her for her time, and especially when they returned with news that her efforts had helped them achieve their goal.
Half an hour later, after thanking her co-workers for their warm welcome, catching up with them and where they were at in their lives and showing a few pictures of John Ross, it was time to work. Her primary role within the organization was the position of dresser; she used her fashion-oriented mind to pull pieces and coordinate outfits appropriate for different physical body shapes and sizes, and for different positions women would be interviewing for. The clothes she had available to her to work with were good quality donations from women in a similar social class to her. Most were donated in a self-serving manner, because it did make some women better about high turnover in their wardrobes when they could tell themselves they were helping the less fortunate while also clearing space in their closet. Luckily, there was a huge difference between growing bored with a certain skirt or blouse and there actually being anything wrong the clothes themselves, so no matter why they'd arrived at the charity's premises, the gesture did benefit everyone in the end.
As she had soon found out, picking and matching clothing was really the easy part of Sue Ellen's role. For her personally, it was much more difficult to maintain a professional but empathetic demeanour while listening to the personal stories clients would tell her. She didn't lack empathy, sympathy or professionalism, or creativity, but it was difficult at times to find the right balance between all of them. Hearing deeply personal stories of loss, heartbreak, betrayal and/or vulnerability did emotionally affect her and sometimes all she wanted to do was fix everything. Her job wasn't to be a social worker though, she was 'employed' to be a dresser, an empathetic one, but still, she wasn't trained in problem solving, conflict resolution or psychology. There were many charities and organizations dedicated specifically to healing emotional wounds and building real, marketable skills; she'd had the privilege of working with some of them during her time of dedicated DOA work, so things weren't all bad; it just got to her sometimes, there was often a lot more to the charity's clients than simply seeking fashion advice.
What got to her the most was when she heard stories of vulnerability that even though they weren't directly related to her or her life, she could empathise with. She and JR had moved past their issues, but still, hearing things like, "I was a secretary when I met my husband, but I stopped working after we got married. I can see now that perhaps that wasn't the best decision", and "I had no idea it would be so difficult to pursue a life of my own, away from my parents' home and the cocoon my husband created for us", did bring back a few bad memories. In a way, she was lucky; even after leaving JR, having him cut off her access to their joint bank account and then having to face the reality that returning to modelling was no longer an option for her, she had still found some support in the form of Miss Ellie and to a point, Jock too. It seemed that more often than not, other women weren't quite as connected or lucky as she was, so when it came to dealing with awful events in their lives, the option to hide away in a hotel suite, seek solace in their families and shame their husbands into doing the right thing, simply didn't exist.
Not all cases were that dire though; quite often, some women just needed a small helping hand in re-entering the workforce in a new social climate, because they had taken a long period of leave to raise their children and while they had been busy doing that, society had been busy fighting for women's liberation. Occasionally too, they got clients who were really just young, inexperienced women who needed guidance in choosing how to best present themselves for the roles they wished to obtain. The charity was there for any and all women who needed and wanted assistance, and Sue Ellen genuinely enjoyed being involved in something so personally, socially and emotionally rewarding. She couldn't pretend she hadn't enjoyed being an active member of the DOA, because for a period in her life, it had been a real lifesaver for her sanity and emotional stability, but when compared to this, there was no contest. Her personal circumstances were a factor, she was happier now than she had been in years, but that didn't really change anything dramatically; she liked being involved in something outside of her family and home life; she liked being involved in this activity specifically.
To be continued…