Spring evening

By Nick Gilmore

Published: 11 Jul, 2024

Thursday

When Mum moved to The Home I promised myself I’d be stricter with myself and to allow myself a break when I was confident that Mum would be unresponsive and unaware I had come to see her.

When Mum was in the last home I would go and see her regardless as it was only a few minutes from me. Plus, the arrangement of the last home meant that it was easier to meet the staff and other residents that I wanted to speak to so no visit was ever wasted. Not that it’s difficult at The Home. It’s just that I got settled into a routine where seeing everybody was unavoidable rather than easy.

In any event, today was a chance to put my conscience to the test.

In the end, it wasn’t that hard. Months of poor sleep meant Lesley felt unsafe to drive to her dad so her visit was postponed too. We both took the day off.

What did we achieve on our day off? Catching up with admin mostly. But The Dog’s placid behaviour on her walks was noticeable and was probably down to how much less stress we were under.

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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