Brighten Your Day

Hey so I've had a horrible past 10 years. Childhood trauma and depression, addiction, abuse etc it's all a lot. I'm female, 24 and work in London after moving here this time last year from small village life.

I now work in the mental health industry and the majority of my coworkers are African or Carribean emigrants. Every day they make my heart swell with love with the way they scold me and care for me. Whether it be them glaring at me for swearing or saying bluntly "Bambi you look so damn tired girl" or laughing about how I find the heat insufferable.

I'm so anxious over my own mother and her health (the only family I have is my mother) it's just so nice to be able to go to work and have the female comfort of another woman ask of I'm okay. English culture is very reserved and closed off and we tend to ignore another person's problem rather than address it. In my experience Africans will call you out immediately and tell you what's what with the purest heart.

My favourite moment has been with a Ghanaian lady who has a daughter my age. I said to her casually I was struggling to eat and was having a bit of a rough time. She immediately left the room, grabbed some food she had cooked on shift the night before, grasped me around the shoulders in a hug that smelt of apricots and called me a "silly glass of milk".

Love you Jacinter, I would literally die for you.