and another funny thing...

... about the second visit to mum last weekend - I finally plucked up the courage to get her photo album out. I'd been putting it off, thinking that it might upset or confuse her to see photos of friends and family she might not recognise/realise had died. And yet, amazingly, she identified everyone and knew unprompted where dad used to work; she seemed to enjoy looking at the pictures and didn't ask about anyone's current circumstances. Perhaps she'll look at it again when we're not there. I'm thinking about taking the old projector lovely daughter found in mum's loft, complete with old slides I hadn't seen since I was a teenager. I should be able to give her quite a film show and maybe entertain a few residents/staff at the same time. Watch this space!

sharp intake of breath

Beloved son, lovely daughter and I went to visit mum on 6 November, her 91st birthday. "Get away!" she said scornfully, when I told her how old she was. A pleasant, chatty visit and then totally unprompted, she said my dad had been to see her and told her he'd bumped into an old boyfriend of hers. She never talks about dad, its as though she's forgotten all about him, then all of a sudden he's paying house calls. I know there's an old wives' tale about it being a sign that someone is not long for this world when dear departed ones start to visit. Probably rubbish, but it was strange. It gave lovely (psychic) daughter and I quite a turn. BS and I went back to see mum the following day and out of the blue she repeated the dad visiting/old boyfriend encounter story. Still, I suppose its quite nice for her to see dad again, at least in the moment, she won't feel like she's been abandoned.