Nursing Home

By Nick Gilmore

Published: 18 Jun, 2024

Tuesday

I hadn’t got the impression that Mum had reached her Peak Active Mum phase when I saw her yesterday so I was surprised to see her totally and utterly unresponsive already today. She was still slightly mobile – fidgeting in slow motion – but I don’t think she had any idea I was there.

She may have known someone was with her though. I sat and held her hand for a few minutes and even though she didn’t return a squeeze of her hand, she did visibly relax and started snoring loudly.

I left her to sleep and didn’t attempt to wake her up.

I was determined to make amends for not spending more time with Audrey yesterday. I sat with her on my way to Mum and again on the way out. She did seem less agitated than she had yesterday.

Her initial concern was to tell me a very long tale about problems with her feet. I think she was trying to tell me that her feet were swollen and she couldn’t get her shoes on. Her shoes were by her chair and she was wearing a pair of thick Christmas socks.

“They do look quite fetching Audrey.”

“Shut up you cheeky bugger!”

We returned to the topic of her escape several times. Each time I ran through the plan and tried to reassure her that everything was under control.

I stopped at the office on my way out just to check with Juliette that I had the right date for her transfer.

“Audrey seems very distressed and doesn’t know what’s going to happen or when.”

“But we must have told her a hundred times!”

Nobody not wearing a uniform is allowed to walk past her without getting instructed to sit down and discuss the plan apparently. Not even the manager.

I wondered what the staff think about a visitor spending as much time as I do with other residents. I’ve never seen anyone else do it but they all treat it as being perfectly normal when I do.

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

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