BREAKFAST WAS SERVED!

Time was when the Guide Dogs’ Association had training centres all over the country but this is no longer the case.

When it was I had to go to train for Esme in W. to one of the few still standing in (would you believe? B. Road).

There I met a lovely Instructor, J. M. A real leg puller if ever there was one but not while we were training as this is a serious business.

However, when not out strutting my stuff with my new dog J.M. kept complaining that none of the clients took him breakfast. In the end I thought:

“Right Matey! I’ve just about had enough of this! Time for a little leg pull of my own”!

One morning I emptied Esme’s water bowl, put inside it one of her bones, a mug with a teabag in it, her rubber ring and a napkin used for wiping up any spillages I made when making tea in my room. (The ring was of course meant to represent a napkin ring – Much too big of course).

Wearing Esme’s lead and collar – Suitable uniform for a waitress, I decided I made my way through the set of double doors to J. M’s room. (Incidentally I met the cleaner on the way who never commented on my strange attire). I knocked loudly and announced:

“Breakfast is served”.

I could hear him talking in there and as it was early in the morning I enquired very inquisitively:

“Oooooh! Who have you got in there”?

He was talking to his wife on the phone. He opened the door and started laughing at me, taking his:

“breakfast” with all the graciousness of someone used to having blind eccentrics as clients.

Later he told me he’d returned the things to my room and when the class was over and I’d learned that I had qualified with Esme, he suddenly appeared beside me and gave me a quick peck on the cheek saying:

“Well done June. You’ve done really well”.

I was rather in awe of him to begin with because years ago he was one of the instructors on class when I trained with the errant Wheat. Then he told me off for being less than gracious to a partially sighted lady who kept “organising” the rest of us when it came to getting onto the bus for training or whatever. He said:

“You can’t afford to turn down help. Your mobility isn’t that good”.

I took a dislike to him from then on but when I told one of the other instructors on my present class that I thought I’d mess up the training with Esme because I remembered what he said when I trained with Wheat he said to me:

“Gosh you’ve got a long memory that was years ago”.

I said:

“Yes I have and I’m going to prove you wrong. I’m going to train with this dog and I’ll teach you to say things like that”.

From then on He was encouraging, positive and kindness itself and I realised just how dedicated he was when he told us that he was prepared to uproot his family when Guide Dogs restructured and move them despite the fact that his children whom he nicknamed “Hairy” and “Melon” because they were called Harry and Helen, didn’t want to move and were settled.

His confidence in and encouragement shown to me meant the world to me and he came to understand just how difficult I found it to train because of the constant back pain I suffer.

I had a lovely instructor named Julie who has since married and has children now and I’d love to see both of these people again but I believe they are now in other parts of the country and are unlikely to train me with another dog when I finally part from Esme whose retirement is imminent.



I wonder if he’s “whined” to other clients about not having been brought breakfast. Of course he was joking with us but if he has I hope someone else has played a similar trick on him. I certainly gave us both a good laugh that day and when I told all the other blind people on class with me what I’d done it made them laugh too. Laughter is what it’s all about and whatever state you’re in it shouldn’t be hard to laugh sometimes.

When I left the training Centre, where I was for a month, I spent the morning in tears. It was such a lovely place to be – Great food; Understanding staff and loads and loads of lovely Labradors! Of course all my attention had to be given to my own but to hear them and know they were there was heavenly! All that was missing was the children but since I’ve not lost sight of the child within myself perhaps I filled the bill quite nicely thank you.