Francis Gay

Each week, Francis Gay shares heart-warming, moving and humorous stories from his daily diary. 

So Jenny can have a cuppa with a
loved one

LIKE most of us, Jenny enjoys company but because she stays quite far away from her family, get-togethers aren’t always possible.

But if she’s feeling lonely she has a secret to make herself feel a little bit better. She let me in on it and reluctantly agreed to let me share it with you.

She admitted that at times like those she opens the kitchen cupboard where she keeps her mugs. They’re not stylish and none of them even match. But each one represents someone special to Jenny. 

Logo

There’s a mug with a football team logo on it that used to belong to her son, Kieran, before he went to university. 

Another has a bright red maple leaf emblem. It was sent by Sharon, an old friend who emigrated to Canada years ago. 

Then there’s the souvenir of the holiday when Jenny met her husband, Neil. When he’s working far from home, as he does often, that’s the one she chooses.

And there’s a favourite one, faded and cracked, but special nonetheless. It was her mother’s favourite and she inherited it when Mum passed on.

So, even when the house is echoing with emptiness, when Neil is away on the rigs, Kieran is at uni and friends are absent, Jenny can still put the kettle on, go to her cupboard, choose a mug and sit down for a cuppa with a chum — in her heart and mind at least.

CHARLIE IS one of those people who follow bin lorries around. A few years back he got himself out of long-term unemployment by setting himself up with a van and a high-pressure hose and he became a wheelie bin cleaner.

Feeling a bit guilty about some of the gunk that gets thrown in my own wheelie I offered Charlie my sympathy.

“Isn’t it a soul-destroying job, cleaning bins only for them to get dirty again?”

“It isn’t really like that,” he assured me. “The first few weeks were the worst, blasting accumulated grime out of bins that hadn’t ever been cleaned before. But once the hard work was done they were much easier to keep clean.”

It’s the same with any of the bad habits we get into. The beginning of any change is always the hard bit but if we persevere we’ll get through and things are so much easier.

Charlie, you should have been a philosopher, not a bin-cleaner!

Any correspondence for Francis Gay should be sent to: 
The Sunday Post, 2 Albert Square, Dundee, DD1 9QJ 
or email francisgay@sundaypost.com

© All copyright D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd., 2008