So, arriving at a customer’s garden today and when I know my customer is in, I always knock or bing-bong at the door in my usual pre-work chat routine, one to say “hi”, the other to find out what gardening they would like me to do.
The meaning of my usual ‘Hi’ is always followed by “how are you today?”
Well, today my elderly customer replied, “Well, I’m still here!”
To which I replied, “ahh….that’s what my elderly mum used to say every time I spoke to her” ( it brought back instant memories to me as those words had just been said by my customer, of the very same words my mum always said to me)
And in an instant without thinking I then said “she’s dead now.”
And as my words auto-fell out of my mouth (and I thought, nooo, what have I just said) my customer just smiled back at me and quietly said ” I will be soon too”.
A moment’s brief interlude brought me bounding back with “nah, you’ve got years to go”, knowing full well that she hasn’t and her also knowing that too!
Anyways, after a continuing chat about the freezing cold weather and looking at her pots of Iris, Daffodils and Crocus flowering away in their multicoloured and blooming fashion, she guided me to an area of weediness needing my gardening attention.
Well, all in all, my customer is ‘still here’ and I’m ‘still here’ too!
now for a cup-of-T
Telstales 
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