Then I reminded mum gently about her claim the last time I had seen her that she was "working for the government". "Oh really?" She asked. Yes, I said, she had said that she was working for the wife of the leader of the Opposition. "Oh yes," she said today. "I have been. Her name's Margaret." Apparently Margaret had been up to see her. They had become quite good friends. "I see," I said, laughing silently and with a smile on my face. "Are you sure you're not a bit delusional?" I asked. She looked at me in a way that made me understand that she was thinking hard.
Apart from this slight hiccup mum has been ok in the ward in the hospital. Today she refused the pineapple doughnut I brought her with her coffee (she drank all the coffee) but by the time I was leaving at the end of the morning visiting hours she was busily hoeing with her fork into her lunch, which today was ravioli with mashed potato, strained pumpkin and green beans. She at least seems to have regained her appetite.
I reminded her that she would be going to go back to the nursing home soon, and asked her if she preferred it. "Oh I don't know, it's alright here," she said vaguely. "But you have your own room there," I offered. "Oh yes, there's that," she admitted. I told her she might end up in the hospital again if the infection - which they are treating as one that is untreatable by most antibiotics - comes back. "Oh well, then I'll just cark it," she said mildly. I told her that they could probably just treat her again with antibiotics the way they were doing this time. She didn't seem particularly phased by anything that might happen to her, even a sudden end of her own existence. It was as though she has become pretty much resigned to whatever fate throws at her. Which I guess is part of her dementia. I assured her that she would most likely be fine.
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