My Small Town Heroes

My kids love capes. We’ve got ones representing Superman, Batman, Barbie, Green Lantern and, I’m guessing because it’s sort of an earthy green, a hobbit. And now we have a heap more which are even more special and super, because they’re personalised.

“The guys at the bank have asked me to give you these,” I told my kids after school today.

You see, when things all turned to shite back at the beginning of October my rather wonderful ex-workmates at the BOQ Gympie set about finding ways to help our family. This is why I worked there for as long as I did – they are beautiful people.

One of the things the girls did – you’re one of the girls now Brent – was to organise a fundraiser at the branch where they sold a muffin (provided by my mate Steve from Paninis Cafe Bakery & Juice Bar) with a tea or coffee for $5.00. But as has always been the case with this bunch of bankers, if it’s worth doing it’s worth doing in some sort of dress up. So to set the mood they all wore pink capes with either a T or B on them. Awesome.

Then today they gave them to me for my kids to play with.

As you can imagine, I was very excited to unveil them because of what they signify – friendship, comradeship and compassion. In a word, love.

“Wooo-ooow,” was the general consensus from my kids. They also love to dress up. They’ll make good bankers one day.

In no time they were tying them on and striking superhero poses.

Finally the question I’d been waiting for came up.

“What are the letters for?” asked Master10.

I told them to guess.

They began opening all the capes where they discovered only two letters – a B and a T. I figured this wouldn’t take them long. I was wrong.

“T!” screamed Miss5. “For Tracey!”

Halfway there.

“And a B!” yelled Miss12. “For….”

Then there was a bit of a lull in the conversation.

“B…,” mumbled Master10. “Beeeeeeee forrrrrr….”

“What does B have to do with Mummy?” Miss8 asked me.

I suggested she give it some more thought.

“B for big?” asked Master10.

“Lucky your Mum’s in hospital,” I said. “And no it’s not for big.”

More deep thought.

“Bank?”

“No.”

“Better?”

“No.”

“Butterflies? Barbie? Beautiful?”

All no.

“I’ve got it!” exclaimed Miss8. “B is for butthead!”

Tracey and Butthead. I wanted to say yes. So bad.

“No.”

“Well, it doesn’t make any sense,” said Miss12 giving up. All the kids nodded agreement.

Nice to know where you stand, isn’t it?

“So T is for Tracey and you can’t think of anything around here which starts with a B?” I asked them. They said they couldn’t. “Nothing at all? No one at all?” I stressed.

“Ahhhhh!!” said Miss5. Finally. “B is for Brad!”

He’s the guy who mows our lawn.

Thank you Jellina, Lesley, Stephanie, Karyn, Leanne, Taleea, Matilda and Brent from all us Devereaux’s. You girls are all pretty super in our books. Love Bruce x

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“Raising a family on little more than laughs.”