UNSPOKEN HERO

While snow storms attack the United Kingdom we thank those that shine the blue lights of safety while another person goes about saving people without the need of praise or thanks. This person kisses his family goodnight and while he leaves the house to attend the home of a aged person whom has no heating or hot water he knows he might not return. Travelling though blinded drifts at 20mph while on-coming cars skid into his path, knowing that unless he reaches the agreed destination soon someone will risk harm in the minus 5 temperatures. The snow causes poor visibility on this 45 minute drive while thoughts of his children go through his head, what if something happens to me? Do they know how much I love them if something did happen? He tries to put these thoughts to the back of his mind while he pushes through freezing temperatures only losing focus to look at the time and up to the sky.

Finally he knocks the door of the person shivering on the end of the telephone. The door slowly opens and there stands a elderly woman with the look of worry on her face and wrapped in blankets, he tries to reassure her "Its nothing to worry about". You step inside and get a warm welcome in a very cold house and head upstairs, he pushes the reset button hoping that for this one time it will just actually restart with no issues but he was wrong! The combi boiler starts flashing the "F2" code the lady tried telling you about on the phone. Not this again he thinks to himself while he heads outside. The storm is sending drifts now like the sand in the dessert into his face, the snow making his fingers numb while he struggles to unscrew the plastic pipe from the connection, with each turn his fingers are burning with the cold. After 5 minutes the pipe is loose, he watches in amazement while the ice falls out in chunks, nervously he heads back into the house and back to the boiler preying it will bloody work!.

The time he spent in the snow outside makes his body feel like its minus 50 degrees, he tries to stop the shivering while he pushes the "Reset" button....then he waits....this 5 seconds feels like 10 minutes until he hears the hum of a healthy boiler. Quickly packing up his tools and then the husband appears and says "I told her it would only be a 20 minute job, easy money for you huh?" he smiles politely, says goodnight and close the door.

The van fires to life with the first turn of the key and he quickly reaches for the heater switch, turning it to the highest setting of 5 wishing there was a 10 whilst he slowly pulls away off the drive. The snow is now more than ever coming down, the streets are unrecognisable and he thinks to himself  "do I get home fast and risk a possible accident or go slowly and risk getting snowed in?" He tries and finds a healthy balance while he drives down the abandoned roads and motorways with only the odd glance from a snow plough driver or a Police officer while they drink hot coffee from their land rover on the hard shoulder.

Finally parking outside his house he looks at the dim light glowing from the TV though the window, watched by his wife that has been kept awake with worry. He walks in and accepts a cup of coffee and while he sips on it he watches his children sleeping, he then realises that this risk was all this for them. His wife says "Its time for bed, you have done enough". While he sleeps everyone forgets about the sacrifice he makes, the risks he took and the journey he travelled to make sure people were safe and warm.

To all these people that night they are just another contractor, to others they are husbands, wife's, grandparents but to that special few they are unspoken heros.

Stay safe out there folks you can sometimes say no and if you do need to work make sure you say goodnight to your kids!