I always wondered who first said this, because it was said to me as a young clerk, in an Insurance office; my Boss was a philosophical kind of man, but I’d always suspected he’d got it from somewhere else; however, since that day I have reminded myself of this quote, and repeated it so many times to others, because it made good sense to me all the years back, and still does today.

Anyway…………..I have to tell you this story.

Today, I went to hospital for minor exploratory surgery.

I sat waiting patiently, with all the other in-mates, trying to control my heart rate and blood pressure, and telling myself – “this is ‘old hat’, you’ve done this before, it’s a doddle, you know what’s going to happen”. Get a grip!”

But no matter how hard I tried to comfort and chastise myself at the same time………my stomach was not having any of it, and it churned, and it churned, and it churned.

Then I tried to busy myself by chatting to a lovely 75 year old, who told me stories of Breast Cancer, and how her positive mental attitude had helped her through, and as much as I’d say “yes, your absolutely right” part of me, namely my tummy, still wasn’t having any of it, mild panic had established itself, and there was no shifting it……..”They’re going to call my name soon” followed by “Oh Lord, preserve me”.

My head was on a swivel by this point, trying to spot from which direction a Nurse might come, so I could compose myself, get up and greet them and ask them something diversionary like “How are you?” Hopefully, they’d rattle on for a while about themselves and forget to take me to surgery! Then very fleetingly, I thought I spotted someone I knew……..

A few minutes later, the same ‘someone’ walked towards me, with a smile and a uniform.

I cannot tell you, the relief that I felt when an ex-resident rep at Edmonds Court, introduced himself to me, all over again, nine years after our first introductions. He told me he was going to prepare me for surgery.

He is a Professional in his own right, and he had my life in his hands. What a powerful position to be in!

And you know what? I wasn’t anxious anymore, the tummy stopped churning and I felt everything was going to be ok; GOD is good!!!……. (Admittedly I did think, just for a second “oh dear, he might see me bits” but hey, putting things into perspective, and experiencing his professionalism, this was the least of my worries).

Anyways………the long and short of all this is: as Housing people, we can think of ourselves as being so powerful, we can decide outcomes for young people, we can ‘shape’ their lives…………sometimes we do this positively, and sometimes not so positively.

Never, ever, make the mistake of thinking you have absolute power over anyone, because sure enough, that person will have their day! It might be nine years later or more!!!!

So just remember be good to people on the way up, because you never know when you’re going to meet them on the way back down again.

Jennifer Johnson.