Another Day at Work
It was a Friday morning and Ben, as well as his mother, father and siblings woke up early ready to go to work
like any other day. They walked out the door prepared to accomplish walking a great distance to the
BridgeWood Factory in Manchester, ready for hard labour and long hours resulting in exhaustion. Ben didn't
seem to realise but his mother wanted to tell him something. “Ben I don't know if I should tell you, but I feel
tightness in my chest and I have found myself coughing and wheezing a lot these days, but don’t tell your
father. I don’t want him to worry.”
Ben smiled and replied with a careless and unbothered voice, “ Mother, it’s probably nothing serious, I don’t
think you have to worry about anything.”
After talking to his mother, Ben realised that it was nearly time for work so he yelled out to his siblings,
“Mary, Helen, James hurry up or else we will all be late for work and we will not be able to buy any food for
supper.” The three little siblings aged 5, 6, 7 and Ben who was 8 were all so young but they had to work
because without the money they earned, it would not be possible to pay for the family’s expenses.
Finally arriving at the Bridgewood Factory, Ben’s mother and father went to their stationed machines and
started to operate the spinning equipment, like the Spinning Jenny while his siblings and him were to pick up
the loose cotton from under the machinery while it was moving. A few hours into work, Ben and his father
started to realise that his mother seemed more tired than usual. She was huffing, puffing, coughing an awful
amount and was using her arm to pound her chest. His father seem quite worried by his mother’s appearance
so Ben went up to his mother and asked, ”Mother are you all right?”
She responded, “ I think I’m unwell. I’m starting to find it hard to breathe and I’m coughing often.”
Ben’s father overheard his mother saying that she was unwell so he rushed up to her, “I know you might be
feeling unwell but please push through because without the pay, it is not possible to buy food. The kids are
starving so please push through.” After hearing the desperate plea from Ben’s father was and thinking about
how hungry the kids would be, Ben’s mother decided to work hard and push through.Even though she was
exhausted, drained and overworked, she did it so that the family would be able to eat.
After the family’s shift they returned home. At this time Ben’s mother became tired and started to cough out
blood. This was a sign to the whole family that Ben’s mother was not well and she needed a doctor to check
her health, but there was no way of that happening as they couldn’t afford to pay one. As their bedtime was
approaching the family knew that their mother was not going to be okay and accepted the fact that she might
die.
The next morning, Ben and his family woke up apprehensive about whether their mother was was still alive.
The siblings went to check on their mother while their father start...
