Was at work today, 'Alf' as I shall call him, put some music on. It was all Irish songs and as Danny Boy came on, I sang along. As it came to the end, I was in tears. No, it was not my singing...! It is just one of those songs that always sets people off. The words and the tune are both so sad!
Alf also gets a lot of his words muddled up - he's in his eighties but I suspect it's something he's always done. Today he announced that his sister was going in for her vasectomy. I looked at him startled and he misinterpreted the look. 'You know' he said, frowning 'With breast cancer. She's got to have a breast off'. The subject was too serious to laugh but all the same, it was a little gem!
Alf occasionally gets me a cup of tea in a tall mug with yellow flowers on. Today, I saw the mug on the table holding some cut-off pink carnations from his garden. 'They're pretty' I whispered hoarsely. 'Yes', he said, 'I always put the windfall flowers in that cup cos it's got flowers on too'. I suddenly didn't feel too good. I think it may be what you'd call Nausea In Retrospect.
Love him, I want an Alf!
ReplyDeleteWhen I started work aged 15, I sat opposite a lovely man called Ernest 'Beau' Beaumont. He must have been late 60's, early 70's. Read The Sun every morning, pausing at page 3 because the girl had 'such beautiful eyes'. Told me that when he was a sailor he got a tattoo of a ship on his chest, but that he sat in the bath one day, and it sank onto 'the rocks'. He had a wonderful laugh. He must have passed away long ago...