I know that at the age of 51 I’m very lucky to have both my parents still alive and gently kicking – aged 90 and 89 and celebrating 60 years of marriage next month. But it is not always a harmonious relationship – they do live with me in their own self-contained side of the house, with doors that can be firmly shut. Most of the time it’s fine and dandy, but being an impatient old cow I sometimes struggle.
Forgetfulness and hard of hearing are the two most difficult things to cope with. So there is a diary in which EVERYTHING gets written and left open on their kitchen table to aid the forgetfulness. And despite wearing hearing aids, they just don’t hear and a typical conversation can be…
“What did you say?”
I repeat and raise my voice slightly.
“I still didn’t hear”
So I repeat again raising my voice.
“There is no need to shout”
To which I snap and really do shout… “well you didn’t bloody hear so I have to SHOUT”.
However, there is a little incident the other evening that made me smile. While at the Exford show I purchased from Vivian – The Lavender Lady (www.thelavenderlady.co.uk) various wonderful creams and a bottle of lavender spray to spray onto one’s pillow to aid sleep. Mum doesn’t sleep well, she loves lavender so it was a perfect gift. However, I forgot to spray it on the pillow before she went to bed and so sadly she asked Dad. He managed one squirt onto one side of the pillow, but as he leant across to do the other side he didn’t lean far enough and squirted Mum full in the face! Still, she slept well that night.