And it’s mine, it’s nobody else’s. It belongs to the hospital but it’s my space.”

Listen to Terry talking about their Haven

Audio transcript

I’m Terry Henderson the maintenance painter at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital, various areas of the hospital, painting, wallpapering, whatever they need done, I just go and do.

It’s the best move I ever done, coming to the NHS. It’s fantastic.

I’m a people person, eh –  I like to talk normally to talk a little bit about come on, hang on me, but it’s I like to talk. I like to talk to patients – if I’m gonnae go and paint a room for a patient I willnae go and ask the nurse and discuss it with them, I’ll get the patient and discuss with the patient – how long it’s going to take, what I’m going to do. And I’ll tell them, we’re not going to finish and I’ll get them back in soon as possible. So I tend to just talk to the patients an awful lot. Constantly, eh.

The place that I escape to is – I call it my howf. I get in here, close the door, and I can do my wee projects at lunchtime and it’s just nice and relaxing when I read my paper and listen to a bit of radio.

It’s my home if you like, my home frae home eh, I’ve got everything that I need – you know what I mean? I can eat in here – because it’s a storage room, I’m allowed to eat in here, so I have my lunch, my breakfast here, just chill oot, use it as my storeroom eh. I do my projects in here for people – if somebody wants something done, I’ll just take it in, paint it for them and move it on, eh? This is it, I like coming to my work.  And it’s mine, it’s nobody else’s. It belongs to the hospital but it’s my space, naebody’s they come for visits now and then, but they get flung out after 10 minutes. I shut the door, I shut the door and that’s me, just locked in here.

Five five days a week, normally start at 8 o’clock finish at half past 4 probably about three quarters of an hour breaks over the day and I just come in here. That’s it, just sit and chill oot, read a book, read my paper, listen to Neil Diamond that’s about it really, that’s my life in a nutshell – paper a few bedrooms in between.

It’s nice as a whole can be, it’s mine, it’s my space, eh – the wee spark keeps saying to me ‘when you retire, I’m having it’.