Happy birthday!

It was my birthday earlier this week.

For some reason, in recent years I’ve always felt it more appropriate to celebrate Mum (who brought me into this world all those years ago) rather than me on my birthday. And this is exactly what I did on Tuesday. Her favourite carer sang happy birthday to me, while Mum smiled and tried to join in. It was almost unbearably sad, to see how much Mum was trying to join in, to understand… she knew this was a happy thing, but was a bit lost in it. And I couldn’t help but think that this may well be the last time she’s here for my birthday.

But before all that, we received an exciting email! It was confirmation from the solicitor that our prospective buyers were offering us what we wanted for our house. Is it the best birthday present I have ever received? Probably not, but it’s about as good as it gets when you’ve been round the sun as many times as I have now.

So, the hope now is that we will have moved to Galloway by the end of November. There are many things that need to go right in order for that to happen, not least that the buyer needs to sell his house.. but I am assured that many people are focused on being ‘in by Christmas’ so perhaps it will really happen. I do hope so.

***

I’ve had a wee break from posting here regularly. I didn’t mean to take a break, but sometimes life happens. And the main thing that happened was Covid. After 3 and a half years of evading the beast, we both got it, and pretty badly. I’m back now, and hoping to post weekly updates. But don’t hold me to that… there are a few other things I’m going to need to prioritise in the coming weeks and months.

***

Mostly on this blog I write about trying to care for Mum as she developed dementia, which nearly broke me on a number of occasions. Gentle meditative stitching her old Fisherman’s Smock probably saved me, giving me a focus and forcing me to carve out time when I could let everything go and just concentrate on those tiny stitches.

If you want to read more about my relationship with Mum and her dementia, then you could start here at Taking smock of the Situation. Or just dip in. After all, if I’ve learned anything this last few years it’s that chronology and time are less important than we might believe.

Finally, if it’s not too much to ask (I know, it is, apologies) I would really appreciate it if you could make a donation towards Alzheimer Scotland. They’re doing stuff that makes living with this more bearable for so many people. Thank you, thank you, a thousand thank yous.

Tags: dementia, Mum Has Dementia, Taking Smock Of The Situation