My Mum Made Me Sad the Other Day

Time of course has helped some very unpleasant memories fade but they will never completly go away,but as you grow older you definitely mellow and you think what’s the point which is where I am now    my mum is the last remaining member of my original birth family I have contact with,my biological father passed away just under a year ago and my siblings I have no contact.

My mum is now in her eighties and for all intent and purpose is housebound,her body is riddled with arthritis and her moblibility is severely curtailed and the pain she has to endure is incredible on a 24/7 basis. 

The only time my mum gets out of her home  is when we pick her up and bring her around our home for lunch or occasionally on a weekday.

On one such occasion about a week ago I went and picked her up on a Monday afternoon because of one reason or another she hadn’t left the house in two weeks. 

I made my mum a sandwich for lunch and she was eating in the garden as the girls played on their trampoline. 

Getting back to the title of my post and why my mum made me feel sad,because all of sudden she announced that she thought she should go into a care home. 

I instantly thought what a terrible thing to be thinking,but my mum thinks she is too much trouble and thought it would make life easier primarily for me. I do her shopping every week her banking well basically anything that would require her to leave the house on her own which she is unable to do. 

After about 20 minutes I finally removed this thought from her mind and convince her that she was not too much trouble at all. The whole conversation did make me feel a little sad that she has been thinking like this. 

This all got me to thinking that there must 

thousands possibly hundred of thousands of elderly people with their main source of company more often than not is the television,a generation almost forgotten by society. 

My mum has gone from driving and being very active in just couple of years to housebound,and it saddens me that her twilight years are far from her happiest. 

A few days later I called around her home as I do most days of weeks. As always I was in a rush trying to fit everything into the day. But something made me stop and just listen for a few moments. My mum announced to me that she thought she was depressed,this is nothing new as it has been a problem all her life. She is currently on medication still, so will be contacting the doctors to see if her dose needs increasing. Allthough I actually think some company and a chat with somebody will make her feel better whether that be family or friends. 

I will be making a bigger effort to spend just a bit more time with my mum. Maybe  we should all spend a bit more time with our elderly relatives.