Relationship status - complicated.... in One day at a time

Christmas turned out a lot better than I expected. My SIL had mentioned that when they visited my Mother she was very unresponsive, and at one stage turned to face the wall. This is very unlike my Mother. She has been in a care-home for several years, since she suffered a stroke that severely hampered her mobility, but she has always been bright and quiet cheerful. I was concerned about that, and also when I phoned the home they told me that they didn’t think she could leave for Christmas day (because of the mobility), they also mentioned that I would notice a considerable change in her since I last saw her (in November). I was determined that if it was to be Mum’s last Christmas she was going to spend it with family.

So Christmas morning I drove north (it takes about 4 hours). Picked up my Brother and the two of us (and a nurse) managed to get Mum into my car. There was no sign of any mental issues, but she does have a large ulcer on her leg, and Brother and I are wondering if she had been dosed up on pain pills when they last saw her. There is no doubt she is very very frail. Anyway despite all that build up, we had a lovely Christmas day. We had lunch out on the deck, and SIL had gone to a lot of trouble cooking a turkey with all the trimmings and homemade Malteser and strawberry icecream (devine). Both of my Nieces were at lunch too, and on best behaviour. All in all it was a lovely day.

The following day (Boxing day), buoyed by our success with the car SIL and I took Mum out for our annual shopping day and lunch. Things will be different now as I can no longer get Mum into the car by myself, so will have to work around that. The final day when I was solo I pushed Mum in the wheelchair around to a local park and we had a picnic lunch. Man that was a work out and a half.

After 3 nice days up there, I made my way slowly home. I was feeling a bit down, and stopped into my old town (affectionately known as bum-fuck) for lunch. Not surprisingly that didn’t cheer me up one bit.
Back to work on Monday, and it is absolutely dead. Most smart people take their holidays now but we had 3 of us in the office. Thankfully we were allowed to leave early most days.

Last week was an interesting balancing act between Keith (in town for a week to visit his elderly Mother) and Richard. Meh, it is complicated. I could easily fall in love with Keith but there is the pesky business of his (supposedly) estranged wife, that he shares a house with. Not exactly what one is looking for in a boyfriend. Richard is a big man child who needs to grow up, but by the same token that makes him a lot of fun. It’s not like I have the pick of them anyway. Keith has gone home now and won’t be back for a few months, Richard is completely emotionally unavailable. Maybe this year I can move on, but call me shallow, I would rather have these two weird half relationships than nothing at all, because loneliness is a total killer. Trust me.