YesBut It's Mother's Cupboard Love - Part 1

For YesBut’s Image on 10th August 2007 Chewy suggested the caption -

"Old Mother YesBut went to the cupboard to get her poor dog a bone."

The photo suggested the following story to me:

In the summer you can save some money, there’s no need for heating or lighting. Actually to say save, isn’t accurate. When you’re living on a Widows Pension, you need every penny to survive. So in the summer I can buy myself some more food, and importantly give Terry a little bit more.

Mind I’m not complaining, there are a lot of people a lot worse off than me. If you’re careful you can survive. I normally buy my vegetables on Saturday afternoon. If you go late enough to the market, when the stallholders are packing up, they sell things cheaply. And there’s always a shelf in the supermarket where they sell things, close to or past their sell-by-date, cheap.

I get all my cloths, except for my underwear from charity shops. Now the winter is about to start I’ll have to put on another layer of cloths. In the middle of winter I spend a lot of time in the shopping centre, it’s nice and warm there. I normally go to bed early and that saves heating costs.

When my friend Mabel died her son said I could have her television. That would have been nice, but I couldn’t afford to pay for a TV Licence every year, its over £100. So I told him I didn’t want it. But I do have my little radio. So that allows me to keep in touch with what’s happing in the world.

But it doesn’t matter how short of money I am, I always make sure I got coffee and chocolate biscuits for Terry’s visits. Terry, that’s my son, he’s a good boy and without fail comes to visit his mum every month, on the day I collect my pension money. Well he’s a good boy and the £20 helps him buy cigarettes. Though I do wish he’d bring his children with him, but he says their stuck in front of their computers playing games. But, one time he did bring me a photograph. I should really send them some money, but I can hardly make things meet as it is. Sometimes I’m tempted to eat one of the chocolate biscuits myself, but I send them with Terry to the children, as a little present from me.

Last week when I was in the shopping centre I fainted. I told them I was alright, but they insisted on getting an ambulance to take me to hospital for a check-up. I told them not to fuss, but they insisted. They said I was suffering from malnutrition. It’s easy for them to talk, but it’s not so easy to stretch a pension beyond its breaking point.

I don’t think what happened was all my fault.

To be continued tomorrow - Bookmark this page