For years before becoming self employed I worked as a maintenance electrician, mostly in the textiles industry – which meant working morning and evening shifts and the night shift too as it was a 24 hour 7 day process.

The job meant I would appear, at some time or other, in all departments of the factory, to address some breakdown, blinking light or smoking appliance so almost every employee got to know who I was and what I did.
Every year at about this time (late November to early December) dozens of requests of “could you have a look at me Christmas lights please” would be made by hopeful faces as they handed over one of their precious illuminatory heirlooms remarking “they worked OK last year so there can’t be much wrong with ’em” and then the worried owner would trot off happily back to loom or spinning frame after being reassured “leave em on the bench luv and we’ll look at em later”

The bulk of the Xmas lights resurrection attempts were done on the 2 pm to 10pm shift,  6am to 2pm shift being far too populated with proper work and 9am to 5pm managers, supervisors and jobs’ worths – once 5pm had passed and the tea time meal break was done then it became “Save the fairy lights ” campaign.
Some of the lights sets had to condemned outright on safety grounds where there were more insulation tape then insulation and less series connected lamps than was safe after some bright family scientist member or friend had “by passed” enough open circuit lamps – telling the owner it was beyond redemption sometimes generated an emotional response akin to informing them they had a terminal illness and weeks to live …and they would go off in stunned silence.
Most of them though just needed replacement lamps of various sorts and their owners would mostly reclaim their mended possessions enquiring “how much do I owe you luv ?” – it was never an earner and we were getting paid anyway so the costs quoted usually merely covered the costs of the lamps etc. – but like the lamps it gave us a selfless glow of the Xmas spirit in helping 🙂

There was also the more year round and occasional “Do you rewire houses or put extra sockets in?” employee inquiry –  this was a more demanding scenario requiring an immediate judgement of deciding whether the enquirer would actually ever pay up or not and if positive usually resulted in a survey visit to the target property to make further assessments.
I only ever undertook one such project which in itself put me off any future ones.

Of course besides the Xmas lights and more major works there were a steady trickle of non heating clothes irons, non boiling kettles and asthmatic vacuum cleaners to do battle with, but that was back in the day when the build quality and prices of appliances meant they  were worth repairing and parts were readily available – today it’s bin it and buy a new one.

Believe it or not, renewing the motor in a Hoover Senior in the middle of a mind numbing night shift could help keep one sane.

(This blog post was first published on squarepegs.overspillers.net by SusieJB and is reproduced here with the author’s kind permission)

Around about the year 2000 I needed to earn some money so I set up a little business as a home help, it was just me, I offered to do shopping, cleaning, basically anything that anyone needed doing for a few hours a week.

I received a phone call from a lady who said she had a rather strange request, she was a recluse, and wanted me to do her shopping, she would leave the money on the step, as  I was to do with the shopping on my return. I told her I fully understood her situation as my son was recovering from a very similar episode.

I talked to her on the phone a lot and gradually established a very good friendship, even taking a fully cooked Christmas dinner to her doorstep.She was very intelligent, but had a very sad life losing her parents and her only brother very close together, she had been in a car crash and was very concious of some scarring on her face, she would not look in the mirror, turn on a light, or open her curtain, she had absolutely no one, not one friend.

It eventually emerged that she had a lifelong desire to move to Polperro so I encouraged her to do so, saying that we would help, even though it is quite some distance from where we live.
Eventually she found a flat to view and much to my amazement agreed that we would take her to see it. I had never met her even thoughI had been doing her shopping for getting on for three years by now, I did wonder what sort of person we would be meeting, I was I must admit rather shocked when very smartly dressed attractive lady came out to the car, if she had bad scars she did a marvellous job of hiding them.

Well to cut the story short, she did move, it seemed to transform her, she made new friends, went out of her home and started to have a life.
We have kept in touch and I have always done her online Tesco order for her, however, I have noticed over the last year or so that she has gradually started to retreat back into her shell, not wanting to see anyone.
She has sounded very unwell on the phone and has resisted all my attempts to persuade her to go to the doctors.
She phoned me on Monday her voice very slurred, she sounded very ill, I begged her to phone the doctor and she promised to phone for an ambulance at 9.30 on the Tuesday which she did.
She is in hospital now and sent me a text yesterday to tell me that she is terminally ill and has very little time to live, she won’t allow me to visit, she has absolutely no one, I doubt if I will even be informed when she dies.

I know I could force the situation, but I know her, and I know she trusts me to respect her wish to be left alone, she says she has to build a wall and that if she saw me it would break it down and she couldn’t bear that,  she sent me a text saying ‘no sad farewells young Sue’

I don’t even know why I am writing this, I just need to, to appease my conscience maybe…because I now think I should have been more insistent that she saw the doctor although I do know her very well and know that would have been fruitless.
I suppose I feel it is really such a wasted life, she was such a lovely person, and it is quite heartbreaking to see someone so nice come to such a sad end.