Every Wednesday afternoon makes me very grateful for Ginny & Muriel, Maureen’s two golf chums, who turn up by bus to make us a group of 4 for afternoon coffees & cakes.
Maureen is mostly non-verbal now – occasionally she does say a few words, and sometimes they are the ‘right’ words, like responding to ‘its a nice cake isn’t it’ with ‘yes it is’. Pretty simple stuff, but even a few seconds of ‘normalness’ is really good to get. In the less good moments she can get a bit aggressive and even tried to throw a glass at me last week – luckily I had hold of it too.
Muriel in particular is hilarious – mostly very self-deprecating about her decline in abilities, hearing, brain cells, being capable of answering texts on her mobile phone, knowing if she’s on the right bus etc. But it’s a great example of someone in her nineties, who has been a friend of Maureen for many years, pulling her finger out each week to get 2 buses up to join Ginny & me at Maureen’s care home. And ditto Ginny, in her eighties but still a regular visitor. It certainly isn’t the lure of great coffee there, though I do try to bring a decent cake each week!
As you’ll see from the pic, it’s getting close to being Haircut Week for Maureen. I am not bad at doing one side of her head, but the other one is really crap in comparison. And I am terrible at the back which often ends up like a halfway up Baldrick ring of doom… But – she won’t sit for the home hairdresser, so every 6-8 weeks my scissors and I arrive and spread white fluffy old lady hair everywhere…
Wish me luck next week… x