Thelma Makes A Decision.

Once upon a time there lived a lovely lady called Thelma. She worked very hard to help people and always tried to do her best.

Sometimes she managed to help people but most of the time her hard work came to nothing.

She was very puzzled by this. Her parents had told her that if she worked hard and did the best she could to help people everything would be alright.

Things did not feel right to Thelma . In fact they felt very, very, wrong. Thelma was sad.

One day Thelma went to a meeting at work and was surprised to discover a new person in the room. He was called Bob. He was big and grey. In fact he was so big that he was squashing other workers. They looked very sad and uncomfortable,  but they said nothing.

Thelma remembered what her parents had taught her about helping people. She asked Bob if he would mind moving, so that everyone could be comfortable. Bob refused to move. He shook his head but did not speak.

Thelma tried again and again. She asked Bob if he realised he was hurting people. Each time she spoke, Bob shook his head and refused to speak. Nobody else was speaking either. Thelma began to feel quite odd.

Suddenly Thelma knew what to do. She rushed out of the room and locked the door behind her. Then she went to the hardware shop and bought some bolts and a screwdriver. Back at work she fixed the bolts to the top and bottom of the door.

Thelma felt fantastic. As she skipped away she realised that to truly help people she had to look after herself.   She vowed that from that day forward she would no longer be ground down by patriarchal systems embedded in a toxic culture.

Thelma lived happily ever after.