Monday

We started the day with a minor drama about Lesley’s dad’s meds.

When Lesley had been with him on Saturday, one of the main tasks had been to lay out his meds for the coming week. But, there wasn’t a week’s worth of everything in stock. The repeat prescription had been left with the village pharmacy last week and they should have been delivered to Dad by Friday. There was no sign of them and he couldn’t remember them being delivered. The first thing to do was to call the pharmacy when they opened this morning to find out where they were. There must have been something wrong with their phone. It was engaged all morning.

Another ‘head in hands’ moment for Lesley.

“I’ve got no option. I’ll have to go over to see him.”

She decided to do what she could by phone first. The GP had seen and approved the request and had notified the pharmacy. The various carers, neighbours and village volunteers who go in his home were quizzed too. Dad was at the day centre and they asked him about the delivery. With someone standing in front of him he could hear and understand the question and could recall the delivery. At least he said he did. He couldn’t remember what he’d done with it though.

Putting stuff that comes into the house in unusual places is a new thing. For the past decade every item of post has been opened and placed on his dining room table for Lesley to deal with.  He can’t see well enough to read any of it now but he still opens it. In the past couple of weeks she’s started finding unopened mail in unexpected places.

He’s been getting confused by other deliveries too. Lesley had had a notification from Amazon that an order was due to be delivered to him. She called him to warn him that a parcel would be coming and that he didn’t need to open it. That evening he said he’d opened the box because he thought it was his new glasses but there had been some mistake somewhere. It was actually a new, theoretically less confusing, dosset box. So that worked well.

Today was a standard Day Four of Mum’s weekly Sleepy/Active cycle. She was awake and talking, calm and comfortable. She’d been talking to the Activities Lead this morning. I’d found that out as soon as I’d walked into The Home. He was in reception when I arrived.

“Hello! Here he is! Good afternoon young man! I think you’re in trouble.”

“That’s nothing new. What have I done this time?”

“I was talking to Iris this morning and she was complaining that she didn’t know where you’d got to. You were supposed to be here early because you were taking her out for the day.”

“Oh, that’s interesting. She told my sister yesterday that I don’t come to see her very often.”

There weren’t any of Mum’s Other People with us while I was with her but she told me about those who’d been there earlier.

“Did a big bloke wearing a yellow jacket come and see you this morning too?”

“Yes!” she said proudly.

“Yeah, I’ve just seen him downstairs. He said he’d been to see you.”

Mum started on giving instructions for moving some of her things. This was Other Stuff. Things only she could see.

The Manager was doing a round of The Home talking to all the residents. I think she does it every day but I’m not normally early enough to see her do it. She found me hovering outside Mum’s room.

“Hello Nick! Are you alright?”

“Yes, I’m wonderful thanks. I’ve been sent upstairs to take something to the little box bedroom for Mum. I’m counting to ten before I go back in and tell her I’ve done it. It’s what I always do.”

“Really!? Awwww.”

She came into Mum’s room with me and had a quick chat with her. Mum did look a bit confused but answered the questions clearly. How is it she can speak so clearly to the staff and then so unintelligibly to me and my sister?

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