Monday

I started the day with a Senior Moment. I got an email from the manager at The Home about the report from their latest CQC inspection. It confused me.

“What is she doing working on a Sunday?” I said to Lesley.

“It’s Monday today.”

The management team were all in reception at The Home when I signed. They were all buzzing. Justifiably so considering what the inspection report had said. I told them all about my confusion.

“I think I’m losing the plot. I think I might need a room here.”

“You can’t,” The Manager said, “there’s a waiting list!”

The spirits were high upstairs too. Everyone was excited. Even Eleanor was smiling.

Mum was awake and talking. She was physically animated too. Not like she used to be, with the bedclothes and pillows in a ball on the floor, but still more animated than the current baseline. I rearranged the bed for her.

“What’s that?”

“They’ve put a pillow under your knees to make you more comfortable.”

“Oh.”

At least she asked What, rather than Who, it was. When she’s at maximum confusion she thinks there’s a child in bed with her.

Her conversation today was all about getting ready to go home and telling me to be there early in the morning tomorrow. Another concern was how we were going to fit everyone else that was going with us in the car as well.

There were lots of Other People in the room with us today. It took her a few attempts to tell me how many because she kept losing count. It was well into double figures.

“Do you want one of your fruit jellies Mum?”

“Yeah.”

“Are you bothered what flavour?”

“No.”

I took one too.

“Hand them round then!”

My normal response that the Other People could see where the packet was and that they could help themselves if they wanted one didn’t work. She insisted that I take the packet to them. All of them.

I held the packet up in the vague direction that she’d been looking at when talking to the figures she could see. There were no takers.

“What about me Nan!?”

“Where is she?”

“There’s one there, one there, one there and one there.”

I didn’t question that she had four grandmothers. I just took another fruit jelly.

“Oi! Hand them round first!”

“Well tell them to hurry up and help themselves Mum!”

“They will if you haven’t eaten them all first! You make me laugh, you do.”

A cup of squash and a milkshake were delivered. The milkshake got finished but the squash was refused.

Talk returned to which rooms needed to be cleared first before I took her home. The departure time wasn’t changing. It was still early tomorrow morning. When Mum’s at Peak Active the departure time will creep forward each time it’s mentioned until we get to “Right! We’re off! Now!”

I was sent on several errands.

“Go and check the room upstairs. Not the children’s room, the big room…”

“Go and see if Tony’s down there…”

“Go and see where Mum is…”

Each time a different member of staff would find me standing outside Mum’s room.

“Is everything alright Nick?”

“I’ve been sent to do something. I go out of the room, count to ten and then go back and say the task has been completed satisfactorily.”

“Ah. OK.”

As the visit went on, Mum became more engaged by her Other People than by me so I made my excuses and left. On my way out I met the nurse on duty. It was the nurse who’d asked me what foods they could try on Mum to get her to eat last week.

“I tried her with some fresh fruit today. Some slices of mango. She tried to refuse to start with but I told her you said she had to eat it. And she did!”

“Really!? That’s good!”

I pointed at the empty packet of fruit jellies in Mum’s bin.

“I know you record everything Mum eats and drinks and I don’t want you to think that she had the whole packet. She had one of them. I ate the rest.”

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