Sunday

The Dog had been so stiff and sore after yesterday’s walk that we took her on a walk that didn’t involve tearing round like a mad thing fetching sticks out of the water. She seemed fine and walked for over an hour without a problem. She seemed happy enough and did zoomies when we got back. All was good until she was chasing her tail when she suddenly stopped dead, sat down and held the problem paw off the ground. She gave me the full doleful eyed “I’ve hurt myself” look. I think it’s her ‘wrist’.

I got to The Home at mid-afternoon for a change. Mum wasn’t much more awake today than she was yesterday. She brightened up when she realised I was there and smiled I gave her a drink. She seemed to enjoy it when Reggie came in for a chat and we shared our highlights from election night.

I read to her for a bit but she was more concerned with laying there quietly holding my hand again. Between chapters I asked if she was alright and she shook her head weakly. I asked if she was fed up and she nodded. She was feeling very sorry for herself.

To be fair, she’s got good reason and you’d think there was something wrong if she wasn’t. I took that to mean that she was quite lucid today even if she didn’t actually say anything to confirm that one way or the other. She didn’t say a word the whole time I was with her.

I shared in the family chat how bad my hay-fever had been over the past couple of days. It’s been as bad today as I can remember it being in many a long year. I’d been feeling so rough that I did a COVID test this evening. That was negative so at least I hadn’t put two or three dozen lives at risk today. Brother said his hay-fever had been so bad that even his dog was on Piriton. Cousin Sue said her hay-fever had been “a bastard”. 

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