Wednesday 10 February 2016

Mum "was attacked"

When I went up to the nursing home today I found mum asleep in her recliner chair by the windows. I knocked on the door and she woke up and the first thing she said to me was to ask how I had gone after being attacked.

Mum: "How are you. Were your arms attacked?"
Me: "Was I attacked?"
Mum: "Someone attacked us. Yes, my arms you notice have been somewhat damaged."
Me: "Noone attacked me."
Mum: "Noone attacked you? Hm, just goes to show doesn't it."

Mum had seen that her arms are covered in dark blotches occurring as a result of her blood disease - the myelodysplastic syndrome - and had assumed that she had been attacked. By inference I had obviously been attacked also. It was obvious!

We sat down and soon I dialed up my brother in Houston to have a chat on FaceTime. We talked about his sweater and his work. His dogs came into his room and he moved his camera down to the dog-level so we could see the dogs more clearly. Coffee arrived at mum's room with the staff and the tea wagon and my brother also went out to get himself a cup of coffee. Mum was quite happy chatting away with her two sons and completely forgot about having been attacked. My brother did say that it was a logical inference to make, to assume you had been attacked, if your arms were covered in blotches and if your memory didn't allow you to remember in fact why they were discoloured.

After we had talked with my brother mum and I got up to get ready to go to the park. Mum put on her cap and sunglasses and we walked downstairs and out the front door. We had to go along the footpath a distance rather than crossing the road immediately in front of the nursing home because there are currently workmen laying big, black, rubber pipes in the street. They look to me like drainage pipes but I don't know where they are going to bury them. We'll have to see. We went into the park and stopped at the first bench, and there were several dogs running around the park. Mum was happy to watch the dogs cavort themselves around with their owners on the grass, which had recently been mown. In a little while we went back inside the nursing home.

I took mum upstairs to the first floor where her room is and we stopped at the dining room. I put mum at a table with two other residents. As I was walking away down the hallway I could hear mum explain to the other residents at her table how she had had a car accident. The last thing I heard before getting into the lift was, "I was walking along."

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