Once upon a time there was a lately trained Nurse working in the field.
She was in her first week on the job, and was having trouble orienting to being on the run ten hours a day every day. Her new employer helpfully provided some direction but rarely of the sort that made sense to her.
Oh yes it is me of course it is me who else would it be?
I could not complete my last course due to financial constraints and so I had to work before my License was stamped. I was working in a lesser scope than I had hoped but I was working and that was the main thing. I loved the people and the care and the rest was just bs to me. Still, this first week was a doozy.
On my third day I was sent to a woman who was dying of breast cancer.
She lived in a very very nice neighbourhood and had a very locally well-known name.
I was told she had been one of the very first Nurses to work with us.
Great! No pressure.
When I walked in she told me in no uncertain terms she did not want any assistance of any sort at all and my job was to dust.
Dust?
The duster was in the closet and could I please go first into the dining room and dust the buffet where the crystal decanter was.
Dust??
This lady was teetering to and fro and I could see a fall coming but no: please just go dust. The Buffet. Where the decanter was.
Did I tell you this story already?
Probably huh. It was a hellish moment. A flame-licker.
I caved and went and got the duster and went into the dining room and over to the buffet. Everything was beautiful. I started to dust, YES I KNOW BUT I DID IT, and placing my hand on the decanter bottom, moved it slightly to get the dust around it.
The stopper toppled over into my hand. I played ball you know. Nothing much gets by me. It was just reflex and God that day. Mostly God.
Looking at the stopper I realise it did not come off cleanly in the conventional sense of the word. It was accompanied by about 1/2 inch of glass, beautifully jaggedly broken. I looked at the decanter. Also broken. Perfectly so. Not a chip or sliver of broken glass anywhere. A perfect clean break. There IS no such thing. Someone had been there before me, broken it, cleaned up, and put the top back on matching all the jigs and jags brilliantly. Perhaps it was even the Lady who send me a-dusting. Perhaps she had insurance to cover such things.
Examining the ring around the top, I read the sterling mark.
Naturally I would do that would you expect anything less?
It is a 200 year old Hallmark. Buggery bollocks yeah of course.
I carefully placed it back on the decanter exactly as I found it.
I put the duster away. I checked on the Lady. I left her and went outside and promptly called the Office and confessed everything. (never could lie well)
The Nurse Leader on duty said:"You dusted??"
"Yes but I didnt break this 200 yr old decanter. I just touched it and it fell off. I feel like I have been set up. I just was not going to tell that woman about it.... but I..."
she mercifully shut me up.
"K we do not spend HealthCare dollars on dusting. That was very inappropriate of her to ask that of you don't even worry about it."
And that, was that.
I remember this so well as the woman collected one of the same things I do.
She had a display box very similar to my own with little sterling boxes in it.
Some of them were over 300 years old. I was amazed. She saw me looking and I said to her: :Oh we have similar taste. I also collect Georgian boxes and other sterling pieces."
Her reply?
"Sure you do dear. GO dust now."
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