Superwoman, in the guise of her alter-ego, mild-mannered Betty of Dawlish, reported to her doctor recently; she does, of course, have excellent health but she must keep up appearances to the contrary in order to maintain a low profile (nobody likes smarty-pants, especially when they are worn on the outside of a leotard!). In truth, Betty, thought there would be no harm in having a flu injection this year, the flu being her particular brand of Kryptonite.

As Betty began to descend the stairs to the lower waiting room she noticed an old lady walking up. Before reaching Betty, the old lady lost her footing and would have tumbled back down the stairs if it hadn’t been for the lightning quick reflexes of our disguised super-heroine. Indeed, there was no time to cast off the cloak of Betty; to maintain her anonymity, the rescue had to be performed without drawing attention to herself. Like a speeding bullet (faster than the human eye can see) Superwoman discarded her white stick and darted forward to save the old lady from falling.

“It was just a little trip, nothing to worry about,” the old lady, somewhat embarrassed, minimised the event.

“Good,” thought Superwoman, “my true identity is safe.”

In a short while Betty, who was outside the surgery by now and about to sprint home (if nobody was looking), was caught up by an old man.

“I saw you save that old lady,” he said shrewdly in his Devonshire accent.

“It was nothing,” Betty played it down.

“No it wasn’t. I saw it all. She would ‘ave ‘urt ‘erself bad if you ‘adden saved ‘er. They’d have ‘ad to call the ambulance if it wadden for you,” he persisted.

“Lucky I was there then,” Betty replied modestly and hoped that would be an end to it.

“Do you know what surprised me, m’dear?” he inquired, then answered his own question, “She did’n’ even thank you!”

But our altruistic heroine (my ninety-one year old Mum) felt that she had been thanked, if not by the old lady, then by the old man, and she walked home on air. No, she didn’t fly – as I told you before, she likes to keep a low profile.