Pa got this internal port stuck inside his collarbone as part of the prep for chemo. The old lady passed out when she saw specks of leftover blood on his skin when we were gawking and going, “Coooool,” like the morbid offspring that we are. Chemo starts this week. I’m nervous, but Pa has been good in the last few weeks, with the surgical wound healing well and putting back some of the weight lost.

Unfortunately, work has been nothing short of hell. While there are better careers to follow, this one throws open a wide open path, as a certain career-minded godsister once said, “In finance, you can be promoted anywhere doing anything!!” Which is what prompted me to stay.

Yes, we are short of staff. No, the company does not realise it. Yes, our boss does. One senior (Lou) is AWOL thanks to her involvement in implementing a new system. The latest senior resigned after 6 weeks for his dream job (finance consulting), leaving us to call on the senior who had previously left as backup on an emergency basis.

The emergency has reached breaking level. One colleague has been away sick all week with mono, another colleague didn’t show up Thursday with stress-related migraines, leaving me and the boss’ PA to run the show. Our boss has thrown the biggest hissy fit to the GMs.

It would be interesting to see what will happen, considering the amount of OT I’ve been doing, I’m actually entitled to time off and my boss wants me to have the time off – he even tried to get me to leave work on Thursday at noon!! Yes, I know there is no point being there if no one else is, but there’s still too much work so he must have been mad to suggest that.

I’ll take my time off, but only when this crisis is over. At this point it would take my falling really ill to not turn up to work. I’m worried for Papa and I want to be able to be there for him, but someone’s got to pay for the medical bills.