Saturday

I committed another school-boy error on my way into The Home today. I met Reggie and walked through to the nurses’ office with him. He asked how Mum had been and I told him she’d said she liked her new room and that the hallucinations had stopped. It turned out that I was only half right.

In retrospect, that was entirely predictable.

Mum was more awake than yesterday. Restless but not yet at the fidgety stage. She didn’t decline a drink and even managed to hold the cup herself this time. But she’d only managed half her smoothie.

She was chattier than yesterday and was quick to volunteer the information that she had a “smelly bum”. But that was about as much sense as she made during the entire visit.

Even though I’d greeted her with the standard “Hello Mum! It’s Nick” she asked if I’d come to visit her and the more she talked, the less convinced I became that she knew who I was.

Even though she hadn’t been talking to any Other People before I’d arrived there was a steady stream of arrivals while I sat there. And one of them was called Nick. She ignored me completely when I gave my standard response if she talks about me as if I’m not there (“Nick? I assume you’re not talking about me. You mean the other one don’t you?”). In fact, she ignored me almost entirely when there were enough Other People in the room to occupy her attention fully.

When these hallucinations started I was worried for quite a while that it was my presence that was causing them because no-one else ever saw her having them. That concern went away for a bit when I could hear her talking to the Other People before I’d even got into the room. The concern is coming back a bit now because as I walked down the corridor away from her room I heard her say

“Here! Where are you lot going!?”

as they, apparently, were leaving with me.

Bloody hell.

Later on, Brother offered his view on the hallucinations and their link to me…

“This is stretching things a bit but go with me. You are the only frequent contact Mum has with a decent amount of history and that history includes family gatherings. I realise not all the Other People are family but if these events were significant to Mum then maybe that’s what’s being triggered in her mind. And that is why it occurs more frequently when you’re around.

Of course this may be bollocks but it might explain why you’re not the only Nick in the room.”

I didn’t think it was a stretch at all. The triggering of memories and the attempt to fit them together makes a lot of sense. I’d add that Mum is a lot more guarded when there are people who aren’t family or very close friends around. She’s notoriously poor in situations where she has to mix with people she doesn’t know. Her previous avoidance of the social groups that Eldest Sister organised for her after Dad died and her refusal to engage with anyone in the lounges at either home are testament to that. The change in her behaviour when the staff come to check on her is like flicking a switch. She’ll go from full-on conversing with a host of Other People and speaking indistinctly to lucid engagement and clear speaking in an instant and will revert back the second they’re gone. Juliette caught her out once when I first reported the hallucinations and she’s been a lot more careful since. But with me, and Eldest Sister, she’s relaxed enough to share what she’s seeing.

As for who the Other People are, it’s not normal for her to refer to any of them by name. It’s not unusual for her to ask me who they are. If I ask her who they are though she clams up. I don’t do that any more. It seems to be too much of a challenge to her reality and her confidence that I can see them too.

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