Dear Jude
My mother went into long term care last Friday. We had been living together for the past 15 years. I miss her so much. She was obsessed with her money. Someone was always "stealing" her purse. Once we had a week long discussion about "a boy" who had been taking money from her purse. It made her cry and I felt so helpless. "The boy" had a "father" and she begged me to see him and get the money back. I agreed and we worked out that mother was owed about £150, part of this was to pay a debt to her own mother (who died in the early 80s). I went to the cash til and drew £150. I came home for a serious chat. "Now. Here you have the money." We put it in her purse and I made her promise not to let "the boy" near her again. She was so relieved. A few moments went by and I could see her mind ticking over. Then, she brightly announced: "That's all well and good. But you know, they still owe me for all his school fees!" "The boy" went away for a few weeks. He returned about a month ago. This time he had taken one of her books. She couldn't recall the title. We went through the Bible, a dictionary...because she insisted it was the most famous book in the world. A couple of weeks ago she asked for a pen and paper so that she could write to the newspapers about this. Her handwriting went sometime ago. However, she managed to scribble something. About a week ago she wrote that her Readers Digest had been stolen. The letter was dated 1941.
My mother went into long term care last Friday. We had been living together for the past 15 years. I miss her so much. She was obsessed with her money. Someone was always "stealing" her purse. Once we had a week long discussion about "a boy" who had been taking money from her purse. It made her cry and I felt so helpless. "The boy" had a "father" and she begged me to see him and get the money back. I agreed and we worked out that mother was owed about £150, part of this was to pay a debt to her own mother (who died in the early 80s). I went to the cash til and drew £150. I came home for a serious chat. "Now. Here you have the money." We put it in her purse and I made her promise not to let "the boy" near her again. She was so relieved. A few moments went by and I could see her mind ticking over. Then, she brightly announced: "That's all well and good. But you know, they still owe me for all his school fees!" "The boy" went away for a few weeks. He returned about a month ago. This time he had taken one of her books. She couldn't recall the title. We went through the Bible, a dictionary...because she insisted it was the most famous book in the world. A couple of weeks ago she asked for a pen and paper so that she could write to the newspapers about this. Her handwriting went sometime ago. However, she managed to scribble something. About a week ago she wrote that her Readers Digest had been stolen. The letter was dated 1941.