Saturday

I don’t think it would surprise anyone who knows Mum to learn that she can be a bit moody. So in that respect she was very much back to her old self today. Unhappy and Uncooperative, Sullen and Sulky.

I didn’t make the best of entrances. I told her it was me and took her hand as I normally did. Normally she would say “Ooh! Blimey! You’re cold!” and give me a look that I like to think showed some concern. Today, she snatched her hand away and gave me a look that I was certain said “Unhand me you monster!”

“It’s going to be a flying visit today Mum. Lesley and The Dog are waiting in the car outside. We’re on our way home from Lesley’s dad’s.”

“Oh blimey!” she mouthed.

“Yeah, we’ve been there all day, clearing up stuff he’s knocked over and broken and doing some first aid on his hand.”

No reaction.

“it’s been a rotten day. The weather is awful and I started off by falling flat on my back when I took the dog out.”

Still no reaction.

My plan for a quick visit seemed to have gone distinctly pear-shaped when Mum’s carer came in with her evening meal. A cup of soup and a small pot of yoghurt.

“Are you going to assist or would you like me to?”

“I’ll do it. I can normally manage OK thanks.”

Mum refused the soup. Firstly because it was too hot and then she pulled a face like I’d just given her something toxic. I tried it. Homemade chicken soup. It wasn’t bad.

“OK, we’ll leave that for a bit. Have some of the yoghurt.”

Another refusal.

I tried a couple more times but she wouldn’t eat anything. I tried telling her about my day and she couldn’t have been less interested. She even tried feigning sleep but gave the game away by opening her eyes and giving me a look that said “Are you still here!?”.

I left to find her carer and report my failure. I hadn’t spoken to this carer before but I’d seen her a couple of times.

“Are you the one that wears the kilt?”

“Yeah, but not when it’s this windy. Nobody needs to see that.”

She said she’d try to get Mum to eat something later.

Good luck with that.

That capped a comically bad day. We’d kicked off with Lesley’s dad’s carer bailing out because of the weather. His route there is mostly tree-lined so we couldn’t complain. That made Lesley’s mind up though. She was hoping to put her weekend visit off until after Storm Darragh had passed but she’d have to go today instead. She doesn’t like driving there at the best of times but she definitely wasn’t going to try it in this weather. At least the trains were still running. More or less.

Lesley left for the station. We’d known already that her train was a little late and I checked online to see how late so I could warn her.

“You’d better come back. Your train hasn’t moved since I last looked and there’s no estimated time showing now. It just says ‘Delayed’.”

I’d have to drive.

We packed the stuff we’d need for the day. Mostly food for The Dog and walking paraphernalia. The Dog started bouncing around like a loon. Not only had Lesley come back quickly but she could see we were going out for an adventure. She loves an adventure.

The Dog knows that she has to toilet before we load her in the car and we set off for a walk round the block. We got to a point where the pavement was covered in wet leaves which was where The Dog caught a whiff of cat. She was already over-excited and just took off. My feet went from under me and I landed like the proverbial sack of spuds flat on my back. If I’d seen someone else do it I’d have laughed out loud. I’d hit my head and everything hurt but it must’ve been hilarious to see. At least nobody had seen me do it and I didn’t let go of The Dog.

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