Before lock down in SA I was having some work done on my new house. As lock down began I had half a bathroom and two windows that were collapsing from old age. There was nothing we could do about it and I lived with the conditions, resigned to the wait.

But now lock down has lifted a little and my bathroom is finished and the windows have been replaced. This morning the final bits of paint are happening where the windowsills have to be re-painted after the old windows were removed.

So this morning, as I sit at my desk, I am wearing a mask for I have workmen in the house. I don’t like doing it. I feel disrespectful of them. But they are wearing masks too. They are busy painting, and younger than me, so they don’t wear glasses.

But I do. And I am typing this post in a fog. It just happens to be a damp misty morning, which does not help, but every time I breathe out my glasses mist up and I am peering at my screen. I chuckled at the dilemma I am in. Take the glasses off and I can’t read the words. Keep the glasses on and I can’t see the words through the mist.

But then I thought. Some people have lived with this dilemma for the last 6 months. Those who are on the front line in any way have had fogged up glasses, peering through the mist for a whole 6 months. Perhaps they have ways of preventing it. I don’t know. I have tried washing up liquid – and it works, sort of. But sight is not clear.

Soon, the workmen will finish and I will breathe a sigh of relief as I rip my mask off and sight is restored. But there are many who can’t do that.

To them I have five words.

Thank you. God bless you.

What heroes they truly are. And this is just one, small issue they are dealing with on a day to day basis. Just a tiny thing. But sometimes it is the tiny straw that breaks the camel’s back.

Hang in there, heroes of our time. We salute you.

Thank you.

God bless you.