Saturday

As Mum had gone into her latest Sleepy & Unresponsive phase yesterday afternoon and probably wouldn’t be coming out of it until some time on Sunday, I took the day off visiting Mum.

It was a regular Saturday for Lesley and she took the train to her dad’s. He’d seemed quite bright and cheerful today. He ate and drank well too. Lesley managed to get him to eat a banana.

“Where did that come from?”

“From your fridge Dad! It was one of the five that you asked me to buy last week and I see someone’s delivered two more since then.”

“Oh. I didn’t know.”

He had been reaching over them to get other stuff from his fridge and just hadn’t registered they were there.

The day had started with a message from today’s designated carer. He had a fever and wasn’t going to be able to attend on Dad. Dad had got up late but had managed to dress himself and get his breakfast. I’d checked his webcam and when he was in its field of view I saw him dozing in front of the TV. He had seemed OK. I asked Lesley if he’d moaned at all about being let down by the carer. I thought it would be useful if he had as it would show that he’d recognised that he needed the help.

He hadn’t.

With Lesley out and me with a ‘free’ day, The Dog was able to take me on a longer and more strenuous walk than normal. That was the plan anyway. With all the torrential rain we’d had over the past few days, each of the routes we tried were blocked by floods. And we tried a few.

With The Dog walked, I caught up on some reading. My email newsletter from Alex Mathers was interesting. I find it really useful to read about his struggles with mental health and today he was writing about how writing helped him. I’d discovered this independently and it’s why I’m here writing this.

I also caught up with some YouTube. Have a look at Dementia Careblazers. I find that useful too.

Bibliography

Why my mental health improved after I got big into writing

Alex Mathers – September 28, 2024

https://alexmathers.beehiiv.com/p/why-my-mental-health-improved-after-i-got-big-into-writing

Dementia Careblazers

https://www.youtube.com/@DementiaCareblazers/featured

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