Wednesday

I arrived at The Home to find Lily on the prowl and looking for a way out. I only just managed to get the door shut in time.

“Are you staying here tonight?”

“No Lily, I’m here to visit my mum”

“Oh, is she here yet?”

“She’d better be or there’ll be trouble”

“It’s just that I think I need to organise some transport and I was wondering if there was somewhere I could hire a car”

“I think you’re too late for that Lily. It’s gone 5 and they’ll all be closed”

“I suppose I’d better stay here tonight then. I wonder if they have a room for me”

“They should do Lily. We could look at room 33 and see what that’s like”

“Where’s that?”

“Walk this way and I’ll show you. Just go down this corridor here…”

We entered the front lounge and I continued to give directions. As we walked in to the lounge, Eve was sitting with another resident but cottoned on to what was happening immediately and gives me a double thumbs-up. We eventually got to room 33 and she looked inside.

“Well, this is very nice”

“It’s alright isn’t it Lily?”

She plonked her coat and bag on the bed and continued to inspect the room, was surprised that she has her own toilet and basin and appeared not to recognise any of her own belongings. It struck me that spending all day, every day, not knowing whether you’re going to have a roof over your head or not must be absolutely terrifying. And yet she seems so cheerful all the time.

When I got to mum I found that we were in the early stages of the Bedding Everywhere And Off To Catch The Bus phase. She hadn’t got to the stage where she’s distressed yet so that was a bonus. We needed to get the bus so she can go and see Barb apparently. She was talked out of it relatively easily though. I passed on a message from Mum’s vicar about a lady mum knows at the church and Mum said she did remember her. She continued to chatter and was speaking more clearly than she’d done for a while. It was clear that she was showing no sign of stopping either.

A random notification pings on my phone and I said it was a message from Lesley saying I needed to go home.

As I was leaving I caught a glimpse of Lily. She was in bed, asleep and still fully clothed.

Author’s Note

My Mum is in a nursing home in a small village in the Thames Valley. The photo is not of the home. I used an AI image generator to give the reader some idea of the home she’s in.

All, some or maybe even none (you’ll never know!) of the names have been changed to protect privacy and hide real identities. If you think you recognise someone then let me know and I’ll edit the post or remove it entirely