A new problem

[Lila13]

My mother says there was a phone call from a social worker called S..... who is coming to see her this afternoon at 5. She didn't make a note of his phone number to ring back, and has no idea how to check whether the person who phoned really is a social worker.

Anyone could get in posing as a social worker, nurse, care worker etc.

Well, I will just have to go on phoning!

Lila

 

[Lila13]

I think she probably imagined the social worker, anyway she's forgotten all about it now.

There doesn't seem anything we can do to prevent such risks, as long as doctors say there's nothing wrong with her and she's perfectly capable of living alone.

There's a limit to what anyone can expect neighbours to do. She's over-exploited them for too long.

 

[noelphobic]

Things like this are a big worry Lila and like most things there's no easy answer. When my dad was alive and he and my mum were both living in their house they had an intercom on the front door so that if anyone rang the bell he could just 'buzz' them in. It would have been easy for someone to tell a cock and bull story and get in. Apart from that my mum went through a stage of not being properly dressed, if you get my drift, and my dad would just let the milkman in when he came for the money. I was always worried that he would arrive at one of the times my mum wasn't 'decent'.

 

[Lila13]

When my mother was very ill she wandered around naked in front of anyone.

It was interesting to notice how prudery returned with improving health, to the extent that she didn't want to take off her clothes in front of the carers. Luckily she's got used to that now. I told her there is a big difference between a dirty old lady and a clean old lady. And she agreed.

 

[Lila13]

When I reminded her that a bogus social worker might be dangerous, she said "that would solve all my problems then". I said they might not kill you, they might hurt you and leave you with a whole lot more problems.

She will keep thinking of death as the one solution to all problems. (But there's nothing new about that, she's been carrying on like that for 50+ years. What is new is the number of people who hear her nowadays, who didn't know she was threatening to wipe out the whole family long ago, if she knew how to make it look like an accident.)

And yet, she still has so much to live for! There are people in much worse states of health and they want to live ...