November 10, 2006

Mum

Work is really slow at the moment. So slow in fact, that as of next week I will be working part time for the next few weeks. It sucks, but I am managing to fill my working hours with a bit of writing, a bit of surfing and plenty of walking around looking busy. I can quite honestly say I have only ever been bored at work.

So, as it turns out, today my colleague Reg is also suffering from a lack of inspiration and we got to chatting, as you do. He revealed that in the thirty odd years he’s worked here, he has been bored more than inspired, then out of the blue he says ‘I miss my mum.’

He followed that very rapidly with, ‘I know that a silly thing to say.’
‘Not at all, it’s understandable,’ I reply and little shocked.

He buried his mother 4 weeks ago. She passed away after a battle with lung cancer. And this is the only sign of grief he has ever shown whilst at work, even to the point of turning up at a workshop just two day after the funeral.

Anyway…he started saying that when bored he would phone her for a quick chat ‘cause even if he was talking crap she would still love it, ‘I put butter on my bread today Mum.’ Then in a high pitched voice, ‘Ohh, don’t use to much, you don’t know how lucky you are, we only had dripping and not that fancy stuff they have today.’

It broke my heart, I wanted to give him a hug, pat him on the back and say it would all be OK!

(275 words)

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