Monday

As Eldest Sister reported yesterday, it was another unremarkable visit to Mum at The Home today. She still wasn’t very talkative but she looked brighter than she’d done for a while. I got no reaction when I told her so.

The little that she said that I could understand was to thank me for coming to see her and to tell me that she loved me.

I talked about Eldest Sister and the kids coming to lunch yesterday. She didn’t show any sign that she remembered them coming to see her first.

My news didn’t take long to get through but Mum seemed keen enough when I offered to read. Although Mum was interested in the movement outside her room – other residents were being taken to the bathroom or back to their rooms to sleep off their lunches – she fell asleep during the third chapter.

As I was leaving, one of the younger carers apologised for being too busy to make me a cup of tea. How sweet!

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