Do not be fooled by this innocent, happy looking face:

Below the surface (and this week not very far below the surface), there lurks a grumpy, often shouty, frequently obnoxious old lady who, given half a chance will swear black is white and white is black.  And be warned, she is very convincing and will have anyone not on their guard believing that what she says is absolutely, completely and utterly the truth.

This Tuesday included – among other things – a trip to have Mum MOT’ed.  It was actually a visit to the ‘Community Mental Health Services for Older People’ for an annual physical health check.  We seem to have moved from fighting for Mum to see someone – anyone –  medical to pleading with people not to add any more things to her list of issues.  I think the nurse got that when she commented that we’d been able to answer ‘yes’ to every ‘have you had / do you have?’ question she asked.  The only exception was ‘do you have a respiratory illness such as COPD?’ and I was able to say no; it was Dad with that one.

The nurse and I did give Mum the chance to answer the questions, but she struggles with finding the words to answer…until she disagrees with what you’re saying.  The nurse asked what Mums diet is like.  I said she has a very sweet tooth with a love for biscuits and cakes.  Mum talked over the end of my sentence in her obnoxious old lady voice that ‘I do NOT eat biscuits and cakes’.  Now, there was no way to disprove this, so in these situations I’ve just started to agree with her.  But a little later the nurse asked about mammograms and I explained that having had breast cancer many years ago, Mum only has one boob.  The obnoxious old lady came out again with ‘I do NOT only have one boob!’  I pointed out that it would be pretty easy to find out which one of us was right on this topic and for once it was Mum who went quiet and from that point the nurse checked every answer with me…

So I guess this Tuesdays message is that not everything you see and hear is the truth, in any situation (but especially with my Mum) 😁🤦🏼‍♀️

PS: To keep it real, while I do my best to make light of this, it can be really hard to deal with so while I find the smiles to write this, for me, my sisters and I imagine my Dad…and everyone else who looks after someone whose light is slowly going out…there are tears too.  If you are one of those people, I get it and I send you my love. x