Thursday

Mum often laughs at how everyone knows me at The Home. It took an added dimension this evening.

I’d stopped off on my way home from the gym and found half the car park blocked off by a van. While I was parking in one of the few remaining accessible spaces I saw the driver go up the steps, ring the bell and wait. And then knock on the door and wait. And then wait a bit more.

“We meet again!” comes a voice out of the darkness.

“Oh! Hello! Back again?”

“Yeah. And I still can’t get anyone to answer the fucking door bell”

I managed to let him in without mentioning that the last time I’d been there when he was making a delivery he’d parked his van in the same place and had blocked me in.

I was half way through signing in when Jade came up from the nurse’s office.

“Sign here” he said

“Hello Nick! How are you?” she said

Signatures and packages were exchanged. He turned to leave.

“Fucking hell. Now I can’t fucking get out!”

“Allow me…”

He disappeared into the night. Eleanor greeted me. Can’t remember the last time I saw her when she wasn’t crying or screaming.

Mum was half asleep. The majority of what little she said was too indistinct to make out but she seemed comfortable enough. At long last she’d had a go at the cake Eldest Sister brought last time she visited. Looks like she’s managed about a third of one of the slices. She said her eyes were feeling better.

“Let me rearrange your pillows mum…. How’s that? Better?”

“Yeah. Much better.”

“I’m getting the hang of this now.”

I ran through my day. As usual it’s pretty much just describing walking the dog, saying how cold it is and describing the latest antics of my idiot father-in-law.

“Would you like another drink Mum?”

“No”

“How about a Malteser?”

“I just want you”

“OK”

I read for a bit and stood up to leave when I was sure she’d gone back to sleep. She was suddenly wide awake so I read a bit more.

Three times I did that before she finally went to sleep.

On my way out I saw Reggie in the doorway of the meds store. He was facing in so didn’t see me but I could see he was wearing the hat Lesley made.

“Nice hat!”

He turned and laughed.

Bibliography

Tales from the Parish: 31 humorous short stories about community, family and village life, set in the English countryside

Kindle Edition

by Stefania Hartley

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