Gratitude and Ingratitude

Character gratitude and ingratitude

Olga had had a difficult life as a consequence of an early marriage that quickly ended in divorce but not before the appearance of Trish her beloved daughter. Work was extremely hard to come by for an English teacher in Central Asia. Olga spent the majority of her time doing odd jobs, laundry work, sewing and whenever she was lucky enough teaching an ex-patriot some basic Russian.

Olga’s winning personality provided her with a capacity to quickly develop consanguinity with her “English” students with the relationship developing beyond that of tutor – pupil such that it became more of friends of necessity. Some of her pupils recognized the dire economic strains of Olga’s existence and started to provide her with not only dollars from the actual teaching but to supplement this with some of their second hand clothes. Invariably Olga profusely thanked whoever had come up with the latest hand me down but her proud nature thoroughly resented these gifts as being charity from foreigners. She hated the smile that she painted across her face each time she had to take old clothes that no one else wanted.

Olga invariably dragged these worn out rags home with her and piled them in the apartments cupboard. Trish had recently taken up sewing and whenever something arrived in the Second Hand cupboard she would sort through the items to see what she could make of them. Trish’s school was actively participating in drama classes and there was a constant need for new costumes. Trish had combined her sewing and drama classes to become a vital component of the schools activities. Trish was for ever getting her mother to actively seek these old clothes to assist her endeavors as they made a wonderful drama wardrobe for herself and her classmates .