Everyday Heroes - Oticon

‘Of course I do,’ answered Zach.
‘Well, let me tell you how we met. It’s a long story, and it all began
with a horse. I had been a vet for some years, but had just
opened my own practice – my own business, that is. In our little
town, everyone knows everyone else. One of my regular clients
was a girl named Tina. She was a couple of years older than you are
now, and had a pony called Bliss. The horse often suffered from
colic, and whenever it got sick at night, I would have to tend to it.
One evening, quite late, Tina’s parents rang to say that there was
trouble again: Bliss was sluggish and lying down all the time. I
drove out to their little farm right away. I examined Bliss, and
checked whether she had fever, which she didn’t. I listened to her
stomach and lungs very thoroughly, but I couldn’t hear anything
out of the ordinary. The symptoms all pointed to colic, so I gave her
the usual treatment.’
‘The next morning, Tina’s father rang me. Bliss has become
much worse. The family had called in another vet who had told
them that the lungs didn’t sound normal, which suggested the horse
might have pneumonia. I could hear by the father’s tone of voice
that he thought me – to put it mildly – a bit of fool. And I couldn’t
understand how I could have been so mistaken.’
‘Dinner’s on the table!’ Jane looked at her husband and son.
‘What are you two sitting around talking about?’
‘I was telling Zach how we came to meet.’
‘I want to tell the story too!’ she replied, with a cheeky smile.
‘You’ve probably told him the bit about the horse, but I bet I can
remember more details than you. Let’s eat fi rst, though.’
Jane passed the serving dishes around, and they ate as dusk began
to close in. When they had cleared away the plates, they sat
down once more, and this time it was Jane’s turn to continue. ‘Let’s
see then,’ she began. ‘I had just moved into a new apartment. I’d
been living there alone, together with my cat, Mr C. Back then, I
was working quite hard, much harder than I do now, even though
your father might disagree.’ She paused. ‘My downstairs neighbour
sometimes played music very loud. Not very often, but when it did
happen, it nearly blew the windows out of the building. And when
the TV was on, I could almost hear what was being said from upstairs.’
‘I was on my way down to complain about the noise, when I
bumped into my neighbour on the stairs. He was a very handsome
28