Erm… Please pardon me for interrupting….Just thought I’d say “Hello”
See it’s your turn again! At least they’ll see me at my best today, not wishy-washy like when Dr Dishwasher makes it. HE hasn’t got a clue. I just can’t do my job properly when he’s around; HE always leaves me weak, unable to reach my full potential as HE doesn’t warm the pot and I’m only in there for a few seconds. They reckon HE wafts me over the top and prays for divine inspiration!
Yes, it’s me…usual place today; alongside the coffee and sugar jars. Got quite excited last week when they put me next to Biscuit Tin. We’ve worked a lot together over the years. You could say we work hand-in-hand as we quietly go about our work. Sometimes we’re crucial! Biscuit Tin was empty when I last stood next to her; it’s January and it seems they’re all on diets around here (except for HIM who, between you and me, scoffed a bar of chocolate in the short time it took for Hot Water
to bathe me and for me to arrive in my usual ineffective state in the cup that day along with Milk and Sugar).
Do you know…I’ve been around for centuries, though compared with Oolong, I’m really quite new. Seems I’ve got lots of family, including Lords and Ladies and whilst you’ll find us growing all over the place now – from Kenya to Cornwall and everywhere in-between, my DNA reckons it was my Chinese cousins who, just for information are usually green, led the way whilst I personally, Darjeeling, was introduced into India during the 1800s.
I’ve achieved great things since then and I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve heard those immortal words “I’ll just pop the kettle on.”
The stories I’ve heard….. Sometimes we’re all involved; that’s Kettle, Coffee, Sugar, Milk, my secret passion Biscuit and my special friend, Tissues.
Do I see life? Of course I do. I’m always busy. Only this morning a lady who had suffered so many miscarriages finally had the joy of holding her long awaited baby. I’ve been with her on all of those journeys seeing first-hand the highs and the lows, shared the fears and sleepless nights. I predict a few more sleepless nights over the next few years for that new Mum.
I’ve had the privilege on many occasions of sitting next to Tissues. Tissues was there first at the birth this morning; Biscuit and I joined a few minutes later – the joy in the room was immense! A couple of minutes earlier Tissues and I had been downstairs along the corridor in HIS room as Dr Dishwater gave someone some sad news and in doing so I was called upon to use my well known powers to calm the situation. HE, with our assistance, went on to explain the treatment and reassured the gentleman and his wife. Interestingly, in the very same room yesterday HE had imparted some good news and – yep, you’ve guessed it…Tissues and ME front line again!
It was Biscuit who really won the day though (with just a little help from ME) last night in A and E when an elderly diabetic gentleman, who hadn’t eaten since breakfast needed reviving. I never cease to be amazed at how quickly our charms work wonders in these situations. Then, just before midnight, supported again by the legendary Biscuit and Tissues, I found myself in the hands of Alice and Maisie in the Staff Room. Alice works in Pathology and did she pour her heart out to her Staff Nurse friend! Seems there are some problems having to work with HIM because after 2 years, 7 months and 11 days dishy Dr Dishwater’s dumped Alice for Ella, the new Nursing Auxiliary on the Surgical Day Unit. If only, with my Clairvoyant’s hat on, I could show Alice how different life will be in a couple of weeks and how Richie, the new Physio in Orthopaedics is mad about her! Sadly, despite many believing my tea leaves can actually predict the future, my super-hero powers are somewhat limited.
So…the gossip round here is buzzing. Ella and I worked together when she started work on the Dialysis Unit. Before that we were acquainted when she worked in the staff canteen helping to facilitate my infamous double act with toast. Strictly between you and me, that Ella’s been around a bit. Nice girl, big heart, impeccable manner and perfect beverage making skills but has one small fault: she can’t pronounce her ‘Rs’ pwoperly. HE’s called Rory so Ella’s got a weal pwoblem.
I’ve seen it all over the years… seen life quite literally come and go; folk at their best, folk at their worst. I’ve witnessed the circle of life turn, observing team members falling asleep in the canteen after their double shift, endorsing Coffee’s magical powers to revive after a night out, been right beside junior staff as they worked hard, cramming for exams and finals. Home from University or at the end of their shift, they would flip off their shoe, flick Kettles switch and I’d be there, alongside Biscuit or Toast (with interlopers like Beans or Marmalade sometimes poking their noses in) as students tried to make sense of theory meeting reality, enjoying the thrill of knowing they would be doing their best and achieving long-awaited ambitions.
Nothing has prepared us though for the nightmare we’ve been through over the past few years. Unprecedented and unrelenting, the pressure has, at times, been intolerable.
Flu used to be the hoodlum testing us, now its COVID who is the real villain round here!
Can I just say that I’m rather proud of the key role I personally have played in the Pandemic; kept busy (often with Banana Cake for company for some reason) with people at home, working, playing, struggling with their mental health, some scared that life will never be the same whilst keeping essential workers in hospitals, factories, shops and logistic transport going on with their gruelling, arduous shifts keeping the vaccine programme rolling. The dedication shown by so many together with successes made by our Scientists will, with luck, keep this country on track and the world moving forward. Their work isn’t finished however; there is still much to be done but ever reliable, I have no doubt that I’ll be hanging about somewhere in the background.
I was there you know….at the beginning. Oh Yes ! Biscuit and I worked together with the great and the good in Whitehall and Parliament during the 1940s. We sat around in the Cabinet Room in Downing Street through many a meeting during the 2nd World War, heard all the arguments for and against a National Health Service. I even helped the secretaries type up the Beveridge Report…. quite an apt name rally (just a pity about the spelling) and celebrated the formation in 1948 of the NHS in the Parliamentary Tea Rooms with Messrs. Atlee and Bevan who saw the NHS as a great step forward for the country.
Now, compared to me and my ancient cousins, the NHS though over 75 years old, is still the new kid on the block but I’ve been there, supported by hard-working colleagues Kettle, Coffee, Sugar, Milk and my great friends Biscuit and Tissues, through those years. Unsung Heroes.
We’ve toiled together tirelessly…. been there all along, right beside the hard-working NHS staff, patients, families and others. Whether a Porter, Cleaner, Nurse, Doctor, Physiotherapist, Radiographer, Pathologist, Pharmacist, Ambulance Driver, Paramedic, Administrative support staff or perhaps Volunteer, a Patient with good news, a Patient with bad news, or family member mourning a loss, someone in the Recovery Room after an operation, or that new Mother from this morning holding her baby for the first time…we’ve been there keeping you and the NHS going.
Oh, Kettle is on … again. Between you and me, Kettle’s days are, I fear numbered; Clip-Board’s been in measuring up for some new ‘Geyser’ to give instant hot water. Worse still, Dr Dishwater’s on refreshments today! Still, even by HIS standards there’ll be just enough time before my next liaisons with Cup, Mug and Biscuit to say ‘Thank You’ to everyone who knows me; the ever faithful beverage ‘TEA’. Always a pleasure to be at your service, seeing you through the day…. through the circle of life.
So… until the next time we hold hands… Cheers!
This story, written by Floss Carter-Hoskins of Coventry, was the winner of the N H S Retirement Fellowship short story competition