Áine said:These people who don't visit are a real menace My dad confided in me the other day that the thing that really upsets him is that none of my brothers have been to visit him. There could be all sorts of reasons for that ..... but the main one is that I'm an only child and don't HAVE any brothers
My 'not visiting' actually caused a stand up row in the hospital with 2 of my mum's sisters 2 years ago. My mum had been in for a few days and after having a fall at the day centre she used to attend. I'd spent many a happy (not) hour waiting with her in casualty and then visited her every day after that. I arrived one Saturday afternoon to be greeted by 2 of her sisters, their husbands and an extemely cool atmosphere. They told me that they'd spoken to the nurse and she'd told them that no one had visited my mum all the time she'd been in - you know the nurse, the one that's there 24/7 and sees everything that happens! They didn't seem to believe me when I told them that I'd been there every day! They then told me that my mum needed 24 hour care. When I replied that I was unable to provide this as I had a child and a job they replied that they had looked after their mother, even though they also had children and jobs (as one of them is childless to my knowledge, this was interesting news!) Their mother died of cancer before I was even born and it was diagnosed at a very advanced stage so it was a totally different situation. I then basically blew a gasket and left the ward, passing the sister's husbands on the way out as they were in the waiting area! My sister later phoned one of my mum's sisters and her husband refused to let her speak to her because he was 'the gaffer in this house'!
My father died a few months later and although the 2 sisters turned up for the funeral they didn't attend the wake and the sister's husband walked past us on our way back from the grave and blanked us!