All in a day’s work

I turned up at the address with the boiler I was delivering and a man who looked like he was in his late 60s answered the door. He had bright orange lips that glistened and his mouth was hurrying to get rid of the last remnants of whatever he’d been eating. I asked him where he would like me to leave his boiler; whereon he pointed to a door along the hallway and said, “in there, but are you squeamish?”

I’m not particularly squeamish but I was reluctant to commit myself before knowing exactly what I would be encountering behind that door. Before the look of uncertainty had left my face he went on to explain that his wife had recently died and was in the room where he wanted me to put the boiler. Quite a few possible scenarios darted through my mind in the short interval before he revealed that it was merely his wife’s ashes that were residing in the room.

Now if he hadn’t said anything about his late wife being in that room I would have been in and back out again without noticing a thing, other than how untidy the room was. But, knowing she was in there, obviously the first thing I did on entering was to scour the room for her. Even then it took longer than I would have expected to find her. It turned out that she was on a coffee table in a little wooden box, blending in with all the other clutter. I don’t even think I would have realised that it was her had there not been some sort of bereavement card propped against her box.

I put the boiler down in one of the few spaces in the room where it would fit and then went into the kitchen, where I put the delivery note down on the worktop next to the plate covered in baked bean residue, which explained the orange lips, and asked the man to sign it. I couldn’t help noticing how cheerful the man’s demeanour was for someone who had very recently lost his wife. I speculated to myself that perhaps the man’s wife disapproved of baked beans while he rather liked them and his new found freedom to indulge himself more than compensated for his loss.

Just as an incidental observation regarding my squeamishness; I found the remains of the man’s lunch on that sauce smeared plate a lot more off putting than those of his wife.
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Comments (35)

Well, somebody’s gotta do it! cool


Harbaaaaaaaaal handshake
MiMi, MiMi, MiMiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiihandshake
Almost 4am here and MiMi better pretend to sleep before Arty gets back from Home Depot and check the blogs!!!

giggle giggle giggle

super
I bet your Arty has to watch you like a hawk, MiMi. laugh
Yeah, the orange lips would have done it for me. The ashes I would have been okay with. laugh

I would have asked, "How recently?" though, just in case she'd been decomposing in there for a week.
I'd already decided pretty quickly that I wasn't going to ask him anything, jac, other than where he wanted the boiler putting. uh oh
What's a boiler? dunno
Google it, Miguel.
I did. You're strong.
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Okay, Miguel, try googling domestic boiler.
rolling on the floor laughing


MiMi can’t sleep.....blues moping
MiMi is more than welcome to hang out in my blog until she nods off. yawn sleep
new definition of men/ women happiness ?

Harbal, wave
Bogart. cheers
I immediately thought there might be rats or mice in the room help
I could handle ashes. Even if she were laid out for a wake, I could work around her.
If she were in there dead for weeks, I couldn't handle it help
Don't bogart harbal. Pass him around.
He must mean Broiler.
Good morning, Harbal! handshake

MiMi did finally get some sleep before waking up again to Skype with my Arty, my usual morning ritual love

Anyway, MiMi just had the yummiest chow mein with my son for brekkie. Gonna drop him off at college after this and hope he’d do well in his Chemistry test later please

Well, when it comes to Chemistry, MiMi and her Arty passed with flying colours! heart wings heart beating laugh
This is why we long for romance, to know how much we will be missed when we're gone roll eyes

He sounds delicious. Did you tell him to join CS or do you think he's already being snapped up? laugh
I enjoyed this blog, you put me right in your shoes to experience what you went through, thanks but I have one question, What is a boiler?

Oh and this made me remember back to the seventys when I was widowed. My late husband hated chicken and I loved it but only ate it when we went out, never cooked it. I think he was dead about 3 months when it suddenly dawned on me in the grocery store that I could buy as much chicken as I wanted much to my chargrin.
"googling domestic boiler"

In the United States, they are referred to as 'water heaters' and come in electric or gas versions. A whole house unit could be as large as 50 gallons. In the last 15 years (or so) smaller 'on demand' units that heat water only as needed have replaced the less efficient upright tank units.

I have a similar 30 gallon unit outside, housed in a metal shed.

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I don't doubt there were also mice hiding among all the rubbish in that room, molly.
No, ooby, I definitely meant boiler.
Delicious indeed, Biff. When I saw all that tomato sauce round his mouth, it was all I could do to stop myself from kissing right there and then. barf
MiMi is lucky. We were taught the Queen’s English at school snooty ( if truth be known, we were taught English only 45mins per day! grin )

And at home we were exposed to American series/sitcoms/movies

applause
A boiler, Fay, is a fixed domestic appliance that heats the water for the central heating and filling your bath.

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Our boilers just heat the water, chat, they don't store it; there is usually a seperate tank for that. It's far more common nowadays to have a system that heats the water as and when it's needed, with no storage necessary.
Your English is excellent, MiMi; far better than many of the native speakers of it on this site. thumbs up
FYI that is what we call an "on demand" water heater in the US.
What you call a boiler, or hot water tank, I grew up calling a geyser. Much hilarity when I moved to the UK and said my landlords had offered to replace my geyser, I couldn't understand why. Oh. Geezer. Got it. doh

Like I'd let my landlords pick me a new geezer. scold
Much obliged, Miguel. thumbs up
We had geysers too, Biff. They were mostly to be found in workplace washrooms and such like. They would be positioned above a sink and have a long thin spout coming out of the bottom, which, as I remember, was bent in an S shape. I also seem to remember they could melt the skin off your hand were you rash enough to plunge it directly under the flow.
Water heater in Mexico
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