Redundancy/Retirement Day -2
The Husband got home last night full of things to say about his day, mostly retelling as much as he could remember about the hour-long presentation he stood and watched being given by some Bloody Suit or other, all about the future of the place where he has worked for thirty-two years. A future that more than twenty of the people in the room will not be sharing. The husband's small department is the first to shut and others will close in the next few months.
Staggeringly, it wasn't until a lady from HR whispered in his ear did the Bloody Suit mention the men leaving this week and thank them for their work. The Husband said the mood was low and sullen, lots of folded arms and dropped heads, but he just stood with his arms by his side and gradually an irrepressible smile formed about his lips as he realised that none of the unfeasibly optimistic management-speak guff being spouted would have anything whatsoever to do with HIM!
I am hoping leaving work will have a similar effect on his posture that getting Our Ma safely stowed away in her Bide-a-Wee Home for the Bemused, Baffled and Bewildered did. I could see the weight of the burden fall away from his huge and impressive shoulders when that happened, just shy of a year ago.
I expect him to become lighter of step very soon, and not just because he won't have to wear steel-capped safety shoes any more.
Today it is set to be 23C in the Northern Home Counties, and yet we are still in March. I am just off out to increase my crop of freckles. I have a book, a strappy dress, and some bubbles in the fridge left over from a little party we gave at the weekend. I want for nothing except for The Husband, and as from tomorrow at about 3.00pm I get him too. Happy Happy Days. He said to me very seriously in bed last night "We will be all right, won't we?" I said "Are we all right now?" He said "Yes we are." I said, "Right then, so we will be in the future as well".
We are very good at all right now.
Aaaah.
ReplyDeleteThanks Judi, we do think on the whole it is going to be pretty damn wonderful, retiring to rural mid-Wales in our mid-fifties. I am scoping out local riding lessons, as being next door to a field full of brood mares makes me fancy getting back in the saddle again, The Husband plans to buy a couple of good push bikes aand fit electric motors to them for the hills. The Dog plans to entice us to the seaside with soulful eyes whenever he can.
DeleteI am most looking forward to The Husband's contact with middle and senior management being a very distant memory. The insensitivity of calling a mass meeting yesterday which included all those being made redundant was just eye-wideningly crass, but far too typical.
My dear brother-in-law is very well shut of the whole boiling, in my not-so-humble opinion, Baby Sis. I'm sure you've revelled in the recent sunny spell and now The Husband is there to share it with you, whatever the weather is like (it's snowing here as I type!) you will definitely be all right!
ReplyDeleteI came to you from "Backwards in high Heels" and was interested to read about you having put your Mother in a Rest Home as I have just put my husband in one as I could no longer cope with his dementia.
ReplyDeleteI wish you a happy retirement in Wales.
Susan, I am very sure that having your husband admitted to a care home - to receive 24 hour attention, if needed, in a safe environment - was the very last option youu tried, not the first, and came out of the frustration, exhaustion and deperation having tried to do everything you were capable of doing for him. I wish you both well, and hope you can enjoy some respite now you have taken this step, and thet he settles before long in his new place of abode.
Deleteand I just love your header photo.
ReplyDeleteIt's Barmouth on the Welsh coast, our favourite seaside spot in the UK, and the little chap enjoying the paddle in the right foreground is my Westie, aka The Dog on here.
DeleteThanks so much for stopping by and leaving a comment. Do call in again!