THE LIFT ATTENDANT

 

On the wall of her apartment, Rose had a framed poster showing the magnificent Anthony Horderns Building in Brickfield Hill in Sydney.  This was where Rose had begun work as a shy 16-year old many years before.  She had only worked there for a few years before marriage and her husband’s career took her overseas, but those few years had left her with very happy memories and a sense of satisfaction and achievement.

Rose’s husband worked in the Diplomatic Service so they spent a lot of time overseas, mainly in smaller countries in South America and Africa.  They had never been offered a plum posting to somewhere like Washington or London; these were reserved for favourites of the Government of the day or, more often, as consolation prizes for leadership contenders who were becoming too dangerous, or failed cabinet ministers who had to be shuffled out of sight.

There had been dangers, of course, in some of the out-of-the-way places but excitement and satisfaction as well.  Her husband’s generous salary and retirement benefits had also made it possible for Rose to enjoy this spacious apartment with views of Sydney Harbour.  Sadly, her husband was gone now, a victim of a fever picked up in years past.  Their only daughter, Sylvia was married to an international businessman and was living full-time overseas.  Sylvia rarely visited but phoned regularly and Rose was now getting the hang of Skype.

On most days, Rose was up early.  She dressed carefully, always with hat and gloves, and caught the train to St James Station to spend part of the day at David Jones department store.  Of course, it wasn’t up to the standard of Anthony Horderns but at least it had tried to maintain something of the classic setup that Rose had grown up with.  She always had tea and a scone in the small café and made a point of travelling from floor to floor in the wood-panelled lifts.  She had visited the monstrous Myer Store once (although it had been called Grace Bros in her day) but she couldn’t tolerate the immense escalator which dominated the centre of the store.  The escalator was always so busy she thought that some people travelled up and down all day, never getting off to browse the departments.

Wandering around David Jones, on the other hand somehow reminded her of her younger days.  Growing up in the suburbs, Rose had always enjoyed the trips with her mother to Anthony Horderns.  On these visits, she always wanted to spend some time on the Sixth Floor where she gazed in awe at the impossibly glamorous ladies who shopped there.  They were matched only by the immaculate shop assistants in their crisp black dresses, with their heeled shoes and refined voices.  Rose was too young to realise that the adopted accents were laughed at by the socialites of the North Shore and Eastern Suburbs.  To become one of these ladies in black became Rose’s burning ambition.

She was sad when Anthony Horderns closed down and especially when the landmark building was demolished to make way for another modern eyesore.  It would have made a wonderful apartment block and Rose would have loved to have lived there.  Now she only had her memories, and the poster on the wall, to remind her of a special milestone in her life.

One day, there had been a whisper around the floor that management was looking for a new Lift Attendant. Like most other big stores, Anthony Horderns had, until that time, employed ex-soldiers for these jobs, giving them a uniform and a stool to sit on if they needed to rest their legs.  Now, it was said, a new young director wanted to change the image of the store and employ someone younger.  Of course, the invitation to apply was only extended to the young men on the staff.  It had never occurred to anyone in authority that it might be a suitable job for a woman.

When Rose applied, many eyebrows were raised, but the young director recalled a trip he had made to Japan and how he had been impressed with the attractive, friendly, female lift attendants there.  They even bowed when people entered the lift, though he thought that might be too much to ask in Australia.  Rose was appointed to the role: the first female Lift Attendant employed by Anthony Horderns, and probably the first in Sydney.

Rose often thought there were three parts of her life: she was Mrs Avery, wife of His Excellency, the Australian Ambassador, she was Sylvia’s mother, but she was also Anthony Horderns’ first female Lift Attendant.  It was not a bad score-line.