Mother, Thelma & Louise and a Key Lime Pie

Mother’s still saying things like
"Must do that when I get home" or
"I'll get one of those lovely key lime pies for my fridge". (Has to be the Waitrose one though. Way better than the others.)

After talking about the two best & most probable care homes, she said five minutes later
"Is it a flat or a house we're going to?" and
“There won’t be any stairs, will there?”

More variations on the theme of Not Getting the Point were
"Will you be living there with me?" and
"We'll start looking at places when I get home".

And is still unclear why she’s in hospital in the first place, and I really don’t dare mention the Accidental Brandy again (why are we not surprised that she doesn’t remember a thing about it?!), so just for the moment the whole incident is referred to as a Really Bad Fall.

Her first question at visiting time Saturday evening was how many grandchildren did she have? (Five, and this is a recurring question.) She had thought it was 6 or 7, but got stuck after P M & J. There are also 6 great–grandchildren so her combinations are many and various.  
First question on Sunday was what was her address? Thought Flat 2 but couldn't get any further. She’s been there since 1982.

So am in the midst of hospital and care homes, and my poor mother’s sitting in her chair by the bed looking so lost and woebegone it weepens me. My brother and my friends, the accountant and solicitor are helping me sort through what happens next (and in what order, which appears to be crucial). The ever–faithful car’s never done so much mileage since I lived in Scotland, and that thought brings me back to this –

If there was one single thing which broke my heart this week and had me crying all afternoon (and night – couldn’t shake out of it) it was when mother said

“I’d love to get some fresh air – just get me out of here and into the car, with you behind the wheel…..”  

 “and run away to Scotland,” I joined in, sort of wistfully, knowing exactly what she was talking about. And for a moment, I was actually meaning it. Thinking to hell with all this, let’s just go and LIVE.

She never minded where we were going because it was fun and we could have the craic, like the umpteen times we’d set off to my place in the north of Scotland, and I’d just settled in and driven happily for 8 hours with two loo stops, sharing stuff like biscuits, nuts, fresh pod peas, cheese or salami slices, trays of prawns, raspberries, and scraping sugar snap peas through hummus.

Speaking of food, one care home I visited yesterday which seems really good and has a VACANCY, being fairly new, has a mini fridge in the bedroom. So she could have her key lime pie after all – hurray!!

Then driving between home and hospital I saw this. Amazing what you can do with five minutes, a sharp knife and a ladder. There might be a story behind it. Did someone get ripped off? The right hand (correct) side is a bit blurred. But it gave me a big fat silly smile –