If only he knew...

If only he knew...

I currently work in a call centre.  I have to be careful about giving too much information for fear of getting myself into hot water but just suffice to say I have conversations with people about moving homes on a regular basis.

Last week a man called me and was telling me how he and his wife had seen the most amazing house.  He said it was absolutely their dream home and they were sure it was within their reach financially.  He said it had a conservatory for his wife's plants and for the cats and a shed for him and four lovely bedrooms for when the family came to stay and he went on and on.

He said they had not even been looking for a house but had a few hours free after visiting someone before the train home and had just found themselves viewing a house.  He said it could almost be described as divine intervention.  If they could describe their dream house this would, he said, be it.

So what was the problem?  This took a bit of digging but he was a lovely talkative soul and as it was fairly quiet at work and he was quite a character I continued the chat.  He said it would take a year or two to get their current house 'market ready'.

TWO YEARS to get a house market ready?  What on earth could be wrong with it? Subsidence? Japanese Knotweed? Recently damaged by fire or flood?  I could think of absolutely nothing which would take two years to fix.  Perhaps it was lack of money but he assured me it wasn't that.

Finally he admitted the truth, he said 'You probably won't even have heard the term - you see my wife is, um, well you see - well she is somewhat of a hoarder!'
The poor man had clearly told me something he rarely told anyone and there was a bit of a silence - from me as I wondered how to or indeed whether to tell him how and why I was extremely familiar with the term and from him as he battled with the guilt and relief of telling someone.

I had to be careful as I was at work and all calls are recorded and all the rest of it.  I did have to say that in fact my dad was also a hoarder.
'Ah yes', said the customer, 'but I'll bet nothing like the scale of hoarding my wife has'.
Clearly it was neither the time nor the place for comparing hoards and I was not about to vocally download mine to the eternal archives of the call centre.  I don't think most people there know, or thankfully care about the programme I was on or the book so it provides some cover for me.

I wished him all the very best with his house dealing.  Two years to get market ready.  Bless.

:)