My old boss
Could be a total bitch sometimes, but on the whole I got on fine with her. I refused to take any shit and she accepted that. Our relationship never moved beyond strictly professional, until my mum was diagnosed with breast cancer.

At that point, she really showed me what she was made of. She yanked me out of the room when she saw how close to tears I was, and spent ages just letting me talk, and venting my anger. I was angry. Angry at the world in general. I'd lost my dad as a teenager and here I was, facing the possibility of losing my mum.

Over the next few months, she was there for every step of the treatment, the biopsy, the lumpectomy, then the radiotherapy. Every day she would ask how my mum was, and how I was. Just knowing that someone cares is a huge help during a time like that, believe me.

When my mum's treatment was finished successfully, my boss finally told me that she'd been where I was. Her mum had been diagnosed with breast cancer some years earlier. She'd had a double mastectomy, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, the works. After a long hard fight, my boss's mum had lost the battle at the age of 60. I hadn't even known her mum was dead.

There we were, two women a generation apart. One who'd lost a mum to breast cancer, one who's mum had been declared in remission from the same disease. (Years later, and it's never come back, fingers crossed.) My mum's cancer had been caught early thanks to a mammogram, and thanks to the wonderful people of the NHS, she'd fought it, and beaten it.

My old boss is still known as a bit of a dragon to most people. They see her as a hard-faced old cow. Other people can think what they like, I still owe her my thanks for her support through a hellish hard time. I've moved on but still email her regularly. I hope she knows that if she ever needs my support for any reason, I will be there. No questions asked.
(TheWeeWitch hasn't been here much recently .., Sat 4 Oct 2008, 18:58, Reply)