I was standing in the queue at my local Nationwide this morning and this 67 year old woman started talking to me (I know her exact age because she told me). You know what it’s like, you’re in a long queue, start tutting in unison about there not being enough cashiers open, then you start talking about inconsequential stuff.

She then started talking about phone calls from “back home”. She was West Indian (my guess, Jamaican), so I don’t know if she thought we had an immediate kinship, both of us being black.

She talked about her husband engaging in extra-marital affairs, her sister (I think) having an affair with the husband, and the sister threatening to tell the woman about the affair. And something about…if the husband didn’t tell the woman about the affair then the sister would claim the husband raped her!! Bear in mind that I’m a total stranger to this woman.

All this time I was mentally willing the queue to move. I wasn’t quite sure what to add to the conversation. I just smiled, nodded, then took out my mobile phone and pretended to call somebody and get  into a deep conversation.

As much as I respect the elderly, I hope I don’t get to 70 and start telling complete strangers in building society queues about my husband’s extra-marital affairs.