25.3.08

Living on the Small

Having had the big city life, a degree of(in)fame(y), a sizable income and lots of shiny things, at a time in my life when I was least equipped to appreciate it, I look on fortune with a jaundiced eye. Alas had I know then that the small life is what is best for the likes of me. Alas for all such insights that take so long to be made clear.

This week I was visiting a lovely lady who I first met in another incarnation. Her husband was a client long long ago. He called himself a Jeweller but he really was a merchant running a store with some jewellery in it. He had taught himself to repair watchbands and install watchpins, and used his scales to buy old gold. He sent all his repairs to another company I did alot of business with - Trayling and Waters.

Living in this retirement mecca has brought me into contact with 3 people, all strangers to each other, affiliated with Trayling and Waters. Person 1 is the jewellery store people above, Person 2 is the sister in law of one of the principals of that firm, and person #3 was a woman goldsmith, first of her time, working in the factory floor. Interesting how things come together!

Back to the Jewellery store....

The Proprietor had a little jar until the counter which he took to the bank once a month and deposited into a special account. This was the money he made repairing watch bands. That little jar and the money made, are what that lovely old lady is living on all these years later. That was their retirement plan.

Not bad.
She is still living small by most standards, but she is quite all right thank you.
I love her for it all the more.