Wednesday

When I walked in Mum’s room I found her laying across her bed with the duvet thrown off and she was talking to someone high above her. A carer had arrived just behind me. She looked at Mum, looked at me and then back at Mum.

“I’m going to need some help.”

She reappeared with help in the form of Al. He gave me a short summary of Mum’s day.

“Somersaults and shouting.”

Mum’s reluctance to let the staff know about her Other People seemed to have disappeared altogether. All the staff who came in the room while I was there repeated the same name.

“That’s a cousin on her dad’s side.”

Had Mum been shouting for this cousin or shouting at her? Given her relationship with this cousin it could have been either. Or both.

Mum didn’t stop talking the entire time she and her bed were being straightened out. It was clear that there were two Other People high to her left and she carried on talking to them when Al and his colleague left.

Reggie joined us.

“The doctor took some bloods yesterday. Iris was quite cooperative.”

“Yeah. I know. Juliette phoned me last night to tell me. It was a bit weird talking about Mum’s hallucinations while I was in the middle of Tesco’s dairy aisle.”

He left laughing.

I tried telling Mum about my day but she interrupted.

“Where did you go for your picnic?”

“It was too wet to go to the river so we went for a walk to the next village. It poured with rain again. We got bloody soaked.”

 “Serves you right going out at this time.”

Then she gave me several clues that she had no idea who I was. She asked me about my mum and then talked about Nicholas and my brother. After that she introduced her Other People to me. There were now four of them but she didn’t say any of their names clearly enough for me to work out who they were.

“Hello,” I said, “I’m Nicholas.”

That really confused Mum. The look on her face clearly said “No you’re bloody not!”

She then continued her conversations with her Other People. The only time I was involved was when she wanted to know if I was able to give them a lift when they went shopping in the morning.

“We’re going to the market and then to C&A”

I tried to stay in the conversation but it was yet another The Other People In The Room Are Far More Interesting And Entertaining Than You Are visit.

I didn’t hang around and I don’t think she really noticed me leaving.

Bloody hell.

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