Sunday

A day without a visit to either parent. We did keep an eye on Lesley’s dad on the webcam though. He didn’t seem to move from his armchair all day. He was asleep every time we checked.

Lesley rang him in the early evening when he woke up.

“Hello?”

“HELLO!! DAD!! IT’S ME!”

“Hello. Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m alright. Are you alright?”

“Yeah, I’m alright. I think I’m going to go to bed though.”

“But you’ve been asleep all day!”

“Sorry?”

“YOU’VE  BEEN ASLEEP ALL DAY!!”

“Sorry?”

“Doesn’t matter… Have you had anything to eat today?”

“Sorry?”

“I SAID HAVE YOU HAD ANYTHING…. Never mind. I’ll speak to you tomorrow.”

“OK. I’ll speak to you tomorrow.”

Click.

Meanwhile, I found this short video on hallucinations. I found it incredibly useful and reassuring.

Mum’s hallucinations are, so far as I can tell, all visual. She doesn’t find them threatening. I’ll have a visit where her Other People are more interesting and entertaining than I am most weeks.

There have been a couple of exceptions that I can think of.

One was when I found her having a furious argument with a woman who was the mother of our next-door neighbour fifty or sixty years ago. On that occasion we thought Mum had a UTI which affected her mood.

The other exception was when she could see a woman standing behind me. Mum wasn’t concerned about her own safety but she did warn me that the woman might hit me.

Aside from that, Mum’s hallucinations involve family members or children and I’ve had the feeling that the children are memories of her friends at school.

All her Other People are benign. They’ll often make her laugh.

I never, ever challenge her about their presence – just like the video says. And if I can understand enough of what Mum’s saying to them I’ll try and join in the conversation.

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