Back in June 2021, on day 13 of the 100 Days Project, life continued quietly. I posted the following:
This bud is not yet how I want it to be, but it’ll get there. I hope.
Time spent quietly stitching while I sat with Mum was peaceful today. My gentle sewing seemed to calm her. I felt calmer too, but also dog tired and in need of new glasses. I remember being horrified that mum needed my help to thread a needle when I was wee. Why couldn’t she do it? How could she not see the eye of that needle? How I wish I had an 11 year old here now to thread my embroidery silks. Or perhaps I should just buy a needle threader?
Your bonus pic today is from the 80s – I’m with Mum on Cardoness Beach. I’m wearing her old leather jacket which I loved till it fell to pieces. How I wish I’d mended it!
I’d been on my own with Mum for the week, and was tired, so very very tired. My working days were interspersed with visits from District Nurses, and with checking to see Mum was ok, occasionally helping her to the loo in between work online meetings. As Mum’s dementia took hold, I found that I was trying to think for her as well as for me, trying to anticipate what she might want or need. It was exhausting. It was clearly exhausting for her too, trying so very hard to be ok. I reassured her so often that we were there to keep her safe, to look after her, and because we loved her. But still she would need that reassurance, most days.
We knew that what we had in place, with carers most mornings and evenings, was not sustainable, but it was impossible to secure more carers – Galloway was at capacity, no-one was available. We had discussed looking at care homes, but Mum had always said that she wanted to stay at home, for as long as she could, that really she wanted to die there. And it was what we wanted too, we couldn’t imagine her surviving anywhere else, and certainly not thriving. We all had very negative views of care homes. I had never actually set foot in one, and it felt like it would be a betrayal of Mum to consider moving her into one. We took each day at a time, and had been putting things in place as and when we recognised what additional support was needed… but each time, as we put the support in place, things moved and changed so rapidly that we already needed to think of the next level of support. I wanted to hire a dementia planner, a bit like a wedding planner, but for an altogether different stage of life.
My brother and sister in law arrived that evening, and the following day I was heading back home for a few days ‘respite’. I hated that term, but knew that I needed it so very badly. I packed some things, mostly just the fisherman’s smock and some work stuff, ready to head home early the next morning.
If you want to catch up on how we got to this point, this series of posts starts here, with Taking Smock of the Situation.
And finally, dementia is confusing and distressing.. for the person with dementia and those around them. My wish is that nobody with dementia should go through it alone. Click on this link to help make this true. Thank you, a thousand thank yous.
Shewolfinthevalley 
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