Too Young to be Old: From Clapham to Kathmandu (Frank's Travel Memoirs, #1) Read online

  Too Young to be Old:

  From Clapham to Kathmandu

  Frank Kusy

  Published by Grinning Bandit Books

  http://grinningbandit.webnode.com

  First published in 2015 by

  Grinning Bandit Books

  http://grinningbandit.webnode.com

  © Frank Kusy 2015

  ‘Too Young to be Old: From Clapham to Kathmandu’ is the copyright of Frank Kusy, 2015.

  The people and events in this book are portrayed as perceived and experienced by Frank Kusy. Some names have been changed for privacy reasons.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, digital or mechanical, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

  Cover design by Amygdaladesign

  Contents

  Author’s Note

  1 – Old Bill

  2 – Fire Drill

  3 – My Grandfather

  4 – Pocket Money Day

  5 – In the Hot Seat

  6 – I Knew Elizabeth Taylor

  7 – A Contract is a Contract

  8 – Don’t put your Director on the Stage

  9 – Bertie Steps Out

  10 – Phoney Pheasants and Plasticine Pigs

  11 – Devils and Bingo Balls

  12 – Anna

  13 – The Importance of Mission

  14 – Too Young to be Old

  15 – Kevin and I in India

  16 – From Tozo to Tozan

  17 – Going Japanese

  18 – Birth of a Travel Writer

  Postscript

  Acknowledgements

  About the Author

  DEDICATION

  For Julie Haigh, a tireless supporter of memoir writers.

  Author’s Note

  I would like to say it was the search for spiritual meaning in my life, or even a noble desire for world peace, that brought me to Buddhism. But no, it was a wild-eyed, crazy old gentleman known as Old Bill. I would also like to say that it was a natural talent for travel and adventure that propelled me into 30 years of globetrotting and travel writing. But no, it was another crazy, eccentric old gentleman called Bertie. This is the story of how these two venerables and two years working at an old people's home in South London changed my life forever.

  Chapter 1

  Old Bill

  My first impression of the Edwin Maudsley home was not a good one.

  ‘You’re late!’ growled Old Bill as he answered the door. ‘Should’ve been here half an hour ago.’

  I checked my watch and protested I was actually a few minutes early.

  Old Bill looked affronted by my impertinence. Then he peered short-sightedly at me and bristled at what he saw. ‘You’re not the Mayor of Lambeth!’

  I could only agree.

  ‘You’re an imposter!’ he accused before trying to whack me over the head with his white stick.

  I could see Old Bill and I were going to get on famously.

  Taking a step back, out of range of the stick, I wondered what I had got myself into. It was November 1982 and I was standing here, outside the tall, red-brick building, to please my mother, who was determined that I succeed in what she called a ‘proper’ job. I had tried and failed in insurance. I had tried and failed in publishing. Indeed, I had tried and failed in eleven different jobs since leaving university. If I were to fail here, in the relatively modest arena of elderly care, my mother would give up on me completely. Little did I know the experience would push me into a journey of inner discovery that would soon lead me to India.

  For now, though, things had not begun well. Fortunately, a tall, broad-shouldered figure in a pink dress, and a pile of perfectly coiffured white hair, appeared behind Old Bill to disarm him.

  ‘I’m Mrs Butterworth, the Matron,’ she said above Old Bill’s protests as she escorted me to my office. ‘Don’t worry about him. Manic depressive. Gets these crazes. Feels the need to take “responsibility” for something. First it was the visitor’s room, then it was the bird bath, and now he’s got it into his head he’s our doorman. He won’t let anyone in unless he likes them, and since he’s half-blind and can’t see who’s at the door, he won’t let them in anyway.’

  I nodded sympathetically, and sized Matron up. It wasn’t just her dress that was pink, everything about her was pink – from her brightly coloured slippers right up to her luminous pink watchstrap, nails and lipstick. But with a mis-matching magenta jacket over the rest of the ensemble, she looked a bit like Barbara Cartland without the dress sense.

  ‘Are you expecting the Mayor of Lambeth?’ I asked.

  ‘No,’ sniffed Matron. ‘Last time he visited, Bill mistook him for the man from the Social and demanded his pocket money – so I doubt we’ll be seeing him any time soon. Nevertheless, Old Bill’s hoping he’ll come back with his Christmas bonus.’

  The incumbent Administrator, Mrs Gregory, was waiting for me in the office. A bubbly little dumpling with a large bosom and an enormous mop of grey hair, she closed the door behind me and said: ‘I see you’ve met that terrible woman.’

  I was somewhat taken aback by this strange greeting. ‘You mean Matron?’

  ‘Oh, I’m sorry, I’m not being very welcoming, am I? But I can’t help it. I hate her.’

  I settled into a spare chair, noticing as I did so that the office was surprisingly bare: just a desk with a typewriter on it, a single filing cabinet, and a steel safe in the corner.

  ‘Well, she was very nice to me,’ I responded. ‘Is she really that bad?’

  Mrs Gregory squeezed her generous hips into the other chair and started nodding at me fiercely. ‘Yes, she is. She’s evil. We were supposed to organise a bric-a-brac sale together but on the morning before the big day she accosted me in the lift and said, “I can’t do it! I’m not doing it! It’s too short notice! Why should we do it? We’re not getting paid for it!” Then she swanned off, leaving me to do everything myself. To top it all, at the actual event, she barged in, having had a rethink, and stopped the proceedings to give a speech in which she took all the credit for organising it. I was fuming!’

  ‘Not very collegiate,’ I said. ‘Did you have a word with her afterwards?’

  ‘You bet I did. Two days later, she knocked at my door, smiling sweetly, and said: “I guess I lost it a bit back there, I’m sorry if I seemed rude.” Well, I wasn’t having that. “Do not ever speak to me again,” I said. “To me, you are dead.” And shut the door in her face.’

  Over the next hour or two, with Mrs Gregory chattering madly at my shoulder, I began learning my new job. It seemed I was to be clerical officer, administrator, typist, fund-raiser, personnel officer, committee secretary and general dogsbody all rolled into one. I began kicking myself for taking on a job with so much responsibility – responsibility was not my middle name.

  Then, just as abruptly as Mrs Gregory had welcomed me, she left. ‘Right, that’s it. I’m off,’ she said, struggling out of her seat and into her coat. ‘Here. Here are the keys. Anything else you need to know, just call me at home.’

  I was speechless. ‘You’re going already? Aren’t you coming back?’

  ‘No, I’m not. If I have to spend one more minute in the same building as that woman, I’m going to explode.’ As she reached the door, she whispered, ‘Don’t let her get near you. She’s poison.’

  I blinked in surprise.

  ‘Her aura,’ she explained. ‘Don’t let her get into your aura.’ Then, tapping the si
de of her nose, she was off.

  I stared at the closed door. Struggling to remember even a tenth of her rapid machine-gun instructions, I felt like a toddler in a bathtub thrown into a tsunami – without a paddle.

  Moments later, there was a tentative tap on the door, and Old Bill hobbled in.

  ‘What do you want for lunch, Mr Queasy?’ he quavered. ‘There’s quiche or bolognaise.’

  For a moment I debated the wisdom of placing an order with Old Bill, but perhaps I had become his ‘responsibility’ for the day. ‘I’ll have the quiche, Bill, if that’s not too much trouble.’

  ‘No trouble at all.’ Bill turned and staggered out, to be replaced by the deputy Matron. A youngish girl in her mid-20s with the weight of the world on her martyred shoulders. Her tolerance of elderly antics had evidently worn thin.

  ‘Oh, he’s a pain, that one. Don’t expect your lunch before suppertime. And that’s only if he makes it to the kitchen. Blind as a bat. Not as blind as Mr Goodall, mind. Three weeks it took me to teach him to feel his way round the home by himself. And then the old bugger went and died in the toilet. What a waste of time!’

  My eyebrows raised and stayed on hoist. I’d never heard elderly people referred to with such contempt. How could these people help old folk if they didn’t like or respect them?

  As I was about to pose this question an angry scuffle broke out in the corridor outside.

  ‘Oh Gawd, what now?’ sighed the deputy. ‘I bet it’s that bloody Bill again.’

  I followed her out of the office and saw two elderly men sword-fighting with white sticks.

  ‘Come on, then!’ Bill challenged his opponent. ‘You come here, and I’ll kick your arse full of old boots and leave it there like a stamp on a letter!’

  The other guy, a tall Irishman with a manic gleam in his eye, was brandishing a plate with a potato on it. ‘Will you look at that!’ he brayed in a thick brogue. ‘How am I expected to eat this muck? It’s got oil all over it. And that’s the man, that’s the evil creature, who put it there!’

  A thrill of excitement ran through the main lounge, and twenty pairs of aged eyes swivelled round to catch a rare glimpse of action. Knitting needles clattered to the floor, dog-eared books slumped into laps, and two old ladies in the corner started laying bets.

  Just then, Matron turned up. ‘Now, what’s all this?’ she screeched in a shrill tone. ‘Oh, I should have known. It’s you, Bill, isn’t it?’

  Old Bill took one look at her, and promptly deflated. ‘Who is it? Who is it? Can I have a cup of tea?’

  Matron fixed him with a withering glance, and deprived him of his stick again. For a moment, I thought she was going to cleave him in two with it, but then he defused the situation by collapsing on her shoulder and murmuring: ‘Where do I live? Can I book a room for the night?’

  It was a pantomime, even I knew that, but all my alarm bells were ringing.

  If Old Bill needed this much attention, and if Matron was as unbalanced as she looked and sounded, I was going to need help.

  Right now.

  Chapter 2

  Fire Drill

  To this day, I don’t know why I reached out to Brenda. She had looked after me when she’d been my editor boss at the Financial Times, and had nudged me awake quite a few times when I’d dozed off at my desk, but she wasn’t a particularly close friend. I guess, if anything, it was the change I’d seen in her after she’d converted to Buddhism that made me pick up the phone.

  ‘I’m so sorry to bother you,’ I said, ‘but I need some advice and don’t know who else to ask.’

  ‘Shoot,’ said Brenda in that familiar deep, throaty voice of hers. ‘Anything to oblige a pal.’

  ‘Well, I think I’m going mad. I’ve only been on this job a few hours and I’m surrounded by nutters. Unless you’ve got any bright ideas, I’m out the door the moment we finish this conversation.’

  Brenda laughed. ‘I know you, Frank. The first sign of trouble and you want to cut and run. Look, if the lunatics are running the asylum, why don’t you chant to become the head lunatic?’

  ‘Chant to do what?’

  ‘Chant to be in charge of the place. What have you got to lose?’

  Well, the answer to that was: ‘nothing’. If I walked out that door, I would merely trudge back to my dreary little bedsit in Clapham and chalk up a round dozen of failed employments. Moreover, money was tight and nobody would be getting any cards for Christmas, let alone a present.

  ‘Okaaay,’ I said in a cautious tone. ‘So what is this chant, then? Because if it’s that “Oh money, give me some” one, I already tried it and it didn’t work.’

  Brenda laughed again. ‘You’re thinking “Om Mani Padme Hum”, silly! That’s the mantra or prayer of Tibetan Buddhists. What we do is a Japanese chant: Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. It means “I devote myself to the Creative Force of Life” and is pronounced Nam Mee-o Ho Ren-gay K’yo. I gave you a card about it, remember?’

  I did remember. She’d given it me a few months before, and I’d put it in my back pocket. It was probably still there.

  ‘Well, find that card,’ she said, ‘and try it out. Find a spot on the wall to concentrate on, put your hands together, and sit, kneel, stand on your head, it doesn’t matter, just say that chant – over and over, the same four words – to not only create maximum value in your work situation, but to be given the authority to transform the lives of everyone in it.’

  ‘By tomorrow?’

  ‘No, silly. Buddhism is reason. Give it a month. Do you think you can manage that?’

  I wasn’t sure, but then, as the phone clicked off, something happened to make my mind up.

  The doors to the home burst open and a short, red-faced madman blew in like a truculent tornado.

  ‘I’ve just about had it!’ he raged at nobody in particular. ‘I put my mother in here to be taken care of, and I just had a phone call saying she’s sitting in her chair crying into her porridge. Who’s looking after her? Nobody. Where’s that bloody Matron?’

  I regarded the crazed figure with astonishment, along with an inordinate amount of fear. He reminded me of my stepfather Bert, who was also prone to sudden, inexplicable fits of temper. Indeed, without the horn-rimmed spectacles and the bushy eyebrows flaring above them, he could have passed for Bert’s evil twin.

  ‘Who’s he?’ I asked a passing assistant. She shrugged, saying, ‘That’s Mr Parker, the home’s Chairman. Best stay out of his way.’

  Matron was evidently expert at staying out of his way. I saw a flash of pink in the dining area, beyond the wide lounge, and she was gone. Which suddenly left me the only staff member in sight.

  ‘Who are you?’ snarled Mr Parker, overturning a table and swinging a chair about in the air. ‘And where’s Mrs Gregory?’

  I flinched. ‘Erm...I’m Mr Kusy, the new Administrator. Mrs Gregory has gone home. I don’t think she’s coming back.’

  The chair dangled dangerously above my head. ‘Well, this is shit in a biscuit!’ declared Mr Parker. ‘We got a fire drill tomorrow! Who’s going to organise that?’

  ‘Matron?’

  ‘Matron? Don’t make me laugh. She couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery. No, I’ll have to do it myself, won’t I? And she and her cronies better be up to the mark, or I’ll sack the whole sodding lot of them!’

  I watched open-mouthed as my new employer tossed the chair carelessly over his shoulder and strutted off in search of his mother. Then I reached into my back pocket and retrieved Brenda’s card before retiring to my office and chanting my socks off.

  *

  I don’t know whether it was the chanting, but the next day went better. Well, for me it did, though it was a black day for everybody else – particularly John Trundle.

  John Trundle was a stout young care assistant and none too bright. He knew to avoid Mr Parker, and he knew to defer to Matron, but was that was about it. When the hot-headed Chairman arrived to organise the fire drill, John made a beeline for the neare
st toilet, locked himself in and missed the all-important briefing.

  ‘Okay, you lot,’ said Mr Parker. ‘We’re going to have a fire drill. See this big bit of bright red metallic paper with flames licking out of it? Well, that’s the fire sign. I’m going to go hide it now, and when the alarm bell goes off, you’ve got to go find it...and bring it back here.’

  Two minutes passed as Matron and me and the other officers waited in my office, and then he was back. ‘Right, off you go!’ We scattered.

  I honestly didn’t know where the fire was going to be, but then the bell went off and I happened to go into the TV room and spotted this red thing sitting in the waste paper bin, hidden behind a chair. ‘Hello,’ I thought excitedly. ‘This is a feather in my cap!’

  But my triumph was short lived. At that very moment, John Trundle emerged from the toilet and the Chairman spotted him.

  ‘Oi, you, Trundle!’ he bellowed. ‘What you doing in there? Why aren’t you looking for the fire?’

  John stopped dead in his tracks and looked dimly back at Mr Parker. ‘What fire?’ he quavered, the colour draining from his face.

  ‘What fire? Go into the TV room, and look for something which resembles a fire. Mr Kusy’s just found it, now I want you to find it!’

  John wandered into the telly room, looked around helplessly a bit, and then walked out again. ‘I can’t see anything,’ he said. ‘Nothing in there.’

  ‘Nothing in there?’ echoed Mr Parker. ‘Go back and look again!’

  Four times John looked for that sign and four times he came back empty-handed. ‘Cum ‘ere!’ said Mr Parker in the end and dragged him into the room and stuck his nose in the bin with the fire notice in it. If it had been a real fire, the whole place would have been a cinder before John located it.

  *

  Over lunch, I got to know the deputy Matron, Miss McCann, a little better. Her bitterness at the world, and apparent lack of sympathy for the elderly, stemmed from two factors. First, she was being used as nightly target practice by her boyfriend, who was fond of lobbing empty beer bottles at her head. Second, she had had prolonged contact with Old Bill.