The hotel receptionist kept my mother’s insulin cold during our eviction

Dear Delyara, When we were evicted, my elderly mother and I spent three nights in a budget hotel while the council arranged emergency accommodation. Mum’s insulin needed refrigeration, and the room fridge did not work. I went to reception already prepared to argue. The night receptionist listened, cleared a labelled section in the staff refrigerator, wrote the storage times down, and personally brought the insulin upstairs before every dose so Mum would not have to walk. On the second night, he found a small portable fridge from another room and moved it into ours. I was embarrassed by how grateful I felt because everything else in our life was unstable. Years later, after we were securely housed, I returned to thank him. He still worked nights. He barely remembered us. I told him that during those three days, I had felt like a failure as a daughter because I could not provide my mother a home. He said, “You kept her medicine safe. That was the job that night.” His kindness gave me something I could do when almost everything else was beyond my control.