Since we're paying you until eight

She came in to talk during my last half hour there. 

She's worn thin from what feels to her like the ongoing disrespect of her co-workers. She's been at it for 40 years and doesn't want to get fired so close to retirement. She's nearly sixty. She's starting to cry. It's been a hard year, she says. She nearly died of Covid. She lost her husband to it. Her daughter moved to another country. Her other daughter lost her newly opened restaurant to Covid. She was laid off for awhile so she started a business cleaning houses because she had to. She does a lot of the daily work of raising her grandkids too. Now these new nurses, some of whom are young enough to be her grandchildren, want to be flip and disrespectful to her. I'm not having it, she tells me, looking hard into my eyes. More tears come.

It's been a hard year alright, I say.