Wednesday

Another visit where there had been a lot about me having to speak to Nicholas regarding the stuff that needs moving and sorting.

“Does Nicholas come in often Mum? When did you last see him?”

“Yeah, this afternoon”

But I hadn’t even sat down before she had asked me who was behind me and she kept on asking that on and off…

While she was on the topic of who else I should talk to she suggested Brother and then Eldest Sister.

It was a Grandson’s birthday and I told her.

“Ooooh” she said in a deadly serious tone.

“Don’t worry. I’ve sent him some money. The usual amount”

“Good. I’ll ring him tomorrow”

I asked if she wanted a drink. She said not but the Other People did. When they didn’t take the cup when she offered it to them I was sent to get fresh drinks for them all. And told to hurry up about it too.

Standard Operating Procedure was deployed. Walk into the corridor, count to ten, then return to say they’re on their way.

Then she asked me what had happened to my ear. I wasn’t aware anything was amiss but it’s not unusual for Our Hound to have caught it when we’re wrestling so that was the story I went with.

“The dog did it? Who’s that? Val?”

Val was a neighbour’s dog that Mum used to take care of while its owners were out at work. That was easily 30 years ago at least.

There were a lot of Other People with us. When she passed the Maltesers round I found that one of them was called Nick. None of the others got identified by name but one was referred to as “Little ‘Un” and he was there with his Mum.

On the whole though Mum was calm and even tempered. Chatty but not always understandable. She fussed with her duvet but wasn’t thrashing about. She tired quickly and didn’t protest when I said it was time to leave.

All quite surreal and another weird visit.

Bloody hell.

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