Congratulations once again your Majesty
@The Judge (didn't we do this already last month? It's genuinely beginning to feel like there's a royal procession every flipping week!!!
).
Thanks to
@paranoid marvin,
@Bren G, and
@Valtharius for the votes, plus all the mentions.
I was pleased to see that such a simple story struck a chord with some of you fine folk. I wanted to do a shout out to all the silent, hard-working people out there that live to serve (teachers, nurses, gardeners, cleaners) and tend to perhaps think about themselves second.
It was partially inspired by the beloved brother of my business partner who took his own life 3 years ago. He was one of the hardest-working men I'd ever met and would struggle to watch others (and sometimes machines) doing work that he could be doing himself, which wasn't always ideal in his later years when he was actually only there to show someone else how to do it.
After a lifetime of hard slog in the baking Australian heat, he developed carpal tunnel syndrome as well as severe arthritis. His ability to work declined as the pain he was suffering rose. He came to work one day, looking to try and make himself useful. It was not long after my wife and I had returned from holiday, and my wife, who was the Director of our company, sent him home because his doctors had ordered him to rest and not to work. We got a call later that night to say that he had passed away. Everyone was devastated, especially his brother and nephew, who also worked for us; it was a family business. And you can imagine how my wife felt having sent him home, who prided herself on talking to all our workers and keeping track of any mental health issues. No one saw it coming.
Every day we walk past the ingenious family totems made of steel and scrap materials that he made for us, at my request, as a wedding anniversary present. And I'll never forget the pizza nights he hosted, the meticulous care he took with his huge lawn (4 or 5 hours every weekend, mowing and manicuring), and his ability to not just Macgyver the hell out a situation, but also to understand the mechanics and the scientific principles behind what he was doing.
I'm droning on here, but... Even if I am not a religious man, I like to think of him still tinkering away somewhere, building things, and cleaning up his workstation on some astral plane.
