Feest Isolation Days -17 April
Yesterday we spent most of the day cleaning. Terry did the kitchen in that deep-down-clean-everything-throughly-way that you don’t often do. I did the same upstairs. We met for a much needed cuppa on the swing before we headed into round two. There are still rooms I haven’t finished but what has been cleaned sparkles.
With the upstairs bathroom window wide open I saw people passing by on the street below. My excitement rose as a neighbour who lives a few doors away was walking in the middle of the street, presumably taking his daily exercise. I couldn’t stop myself from yelling out, “Hello from Mrs. Mop!” cheerily waving my marigold covered hand in his direction. It was a delight to speak to someone in person.
“Hello!” He replied.“It’s amazing the things we’re getting up to these days isn’t it?” He pointed towards my gloves and mop.
“I’ve done this sort of thing in the past,” I said. “But not regularly for a long, long time.”
I discovered that both he and his wife have had the virus as has his daughter, a health care worker who lives with them. He has yet to recover his sense of taste and smell but feels better. We talked further about the virus and the lockdown, the pandemic generally, unitl it was time for him to go and me to return to my task at hand and scrub the shower.
Terry and I both come from familes who cleaned rather than were cleaned for. His Mother had a long standing position as a cleaner. For over fifty years, she was the weekly cleaner for a family. She didn’t stop until the last remaining family member moved into a care home. When she was in her eighties, Doris, Terry’s mum, still went round for a cuppa and for the friendship that had developed over the years. Nevertheless, she would still have swished her duster around the place and run the hoover over the carpets to help Mrs. E who was a few years older.
My grandfather died when I was six and my Baba couldn’t stand the thought of living on her own forever, and another man was out of the question. She, too, eventually started cleaning for people. Hers had always been the sort of home where you could eat off the floor it was so clean. Baba was known for sometimes whisking your plate of food off the table with one bite left because she was so eager to wash the dishes and make her kitchen sparkle. Finding a housekeeping positon where she could look after people and a home wasn’t difficult. Her penchant for cleaning, along with her sunny dispostion meant she soon found a family that she ended up living with and caring for. Eventually, the family relocated and Baba went to live with one of her daughters. It didn’t take her long to find another family to look after, cook, clean and care for. The head of the family was a doctor and he and his wife had three young children. They became as close to her as her own grown up children and grandchildren. When she died she was well into her nineties, and the three doctors kids who were all grown up with families of their own by then all attended her funeral.
Cleaners don’t just dust and hoover and scrub for us, they become part of our lives. Over the years, they have enabled us to keep our house tidy and orderly when we were both working demanding jobs as well as looking after our youngest. I prefer the term houskeeper to describe the most recent hired help. They not only clean but know us well enough to order our sometimes disheveled cupboards and closests. V visited us in New Zealand a few years ago, and although she’s now moved cities, we still keep in touch. Our current houskeeper is her niece. Keeping it all in the family suits us perfectly. I hope lockdown ends soon. M will be delighted with how well we did in her absence! She’s part of the family now and we too keep in touch. I can’t wait until we can see her again and after a big hug and a long chat, I’ll happily hand her my (her) duster!
With love,
Kathy x