The Retirement

Life before Blip


Today was the day my mum retired from her job as a clerk at the West Cumberland Hospital. She'd worked at the hospitals in Whitehaven since I was very young, first in Whitehaven Castle, then later moving up to Hensingham when the new hospital was built.

She did her job well in the Supplies department and was known by most of the hospital's surgeons and ward sisters. her catalogues were marked so that, when a surgeon placed an order, she knew exactly which sutures or catheters the individual preferred.

When she reached 60 they gave her a good retirement party in the office and a lot of staff came down from the wards to join in. Even her 2 grandchildren were there. There were 152 signatures on her retirement card, they had to stick an extra page in the A4-sized card!

The lady in purple and their boss came to mum's funeral, 27years later.

The gift bought with some of the money collected was a Yamaha keyboard. There am I alongside her looking as if I know how to play it.