Tuesday

We started the day with a message from Lesley’s dad’s early morning carer.

“He’s OK now but when he first got up he was very weak and unsteady. He’s quite frail now.”

That was followed by a message from his afternoon carer.

“He’s broken his toilet seat!”

The special toilet seat is one of a number of aids provided by Social Services to make things easier round the home for him. Even though he also has a frame round the toilet to assist with getting on and off he doesn’t have the strength is his arms or legs to lower himself gently any more. He gets half way and then just drops the rest of the way. He does it whenever and wherever he sits down. He falls onto a chair rather than sitting on it. His toilet seats only last a few months of that sort of treatment.

Quite unbelievably, a new toilet seat will be delivered and fitted on Thursday.

Mum was having a better day today. She was just coming out of the latest Sleepy phase when I got to The Home.

She was sufficiently conscious to be aware I was there and I think she even knew who I was. She nodded her assent when I offered to get her a drink. She spoke very little and when she did it was entirely unintelligible. Until Reggie turned up.

“Hello Iris! How are you? It’s been a little while since I last saw you now that I’m working downstairs…”

He took her hands.

“Ooh! Blimey! You’re cold!”

But that was that. That was the last thing she said. I was really struck by how clearly she spoke though.

Reggie was on his way somewhere else but on his way out whispered

“Hmmm… She’s lost a lot of weight…”

Mum managed a little more squash but within a few minutes she was asleep again.

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