Untouched Drinks

By Nick Gilmore

Published: 16 Oct, 2024

Wednesday

Everyone I met on my way through The Home to Mum’s room gave me the same update today.

“She was awake earlier but she’s gone to sleep now.”

I had guessed she would be given how hyperactive she’d been yesterday. Her level of hyperactivity isn’t what it was and I’ve had to adjust my parameters a bit. Even quite recently a proper Day Five level of hyperactivity would involve throwing her bedding off and being so physically agitated that she’d end up laying across the bed with her legs over the bedrail. I don’t think she has the strength to do that now.

The row of untouched drinks on her table told me she’d been asleep for several hours already. I couldn’t get any response from her at all. It was only her snoring that told me she was still with us.

It was Reggie who got a response from her. We’d been chatting for a while before he’d asked me if Mum knew I was there.

“IRIS!!”, he shouted, “NICK’S HERE TO SEE YOU!!”

She opened her eyes, looked at him and then me and went back to sleep without saying a word.

“Well, it looks like she’ll be asleep all day tomorrow so that’ll give me the day off.”

Reggie agreed. It’s likely that she wouldn’t be coming out of this Sleepy phase until some time on Friday morning. It might even be later than that if this Sleepy phase is as long as some recent ones.

We’ll see.

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

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