Friday 13th started a little early for me, 11.41p.m on Thursday to be exact! There was I dozing in front of Question Time, when the phone rang. A policeman was with my dad, who had rung to report my mum missing, apparently "she had gone shopping at 5 o'clock and not returned." This really threw me because mum died nineteen years ago. So, I explained this to the PC, and he asked me what he should do!
As this was the first time this has happened, I wasn't sure how to react, so I asked him to make dad a of tea, and reassure him that everything was OK
Anyhow, there were no more calls that night, so I assume the PC managed OK.
Friday morning, I went to put air in tyres and fuel in car before my usual Friday visit to dad, to find a nail in the tyre, so, a quick trip to the tyre garage ensued.The journey usually takes about 50 minutes, but today there were roadworks, tyres, slow traffic... etc, after over an hour I arrive at dad's village and go straight to the solicitors to pay a bill (story on another thread), card didn't work, so I went to the bank to see what was happening, apparently, someone had cancelled the card.A new card was duly ordered, an I was advised to use a cheque when shopping for dad.
Before, stocking up in the local supermarket, I asked if they accepted cheques. "No" was the answer, so back to the bank I go, and explain. As it is only a small branch, and they are now getting to know my face, they said that they could I could withdraw money over the counter, we than got chatting. Off I go to the supermarket, only to realise that I hadn't been given the money I requested, only the receipt! Back to the bank for the third time, fortunately, the assistant had remembered and had the money on one side waiting for me. Finally, I was able to do some shopping for dad, only to get to the queue, to find only one assistant on the tills and she was having problems either someone else's card! After about 5 minutes of waiting, and getting extremely twitchy, I asked her to ask for help. I finally arrived at dad's house just 10 minutes before the cut-off time to ring for a GP home visit.
If you have ever seen the John Cleese film "Clockwise", you will know how I was feeling by now!
To cut a long story short, Dad has been prescribed antibiotics for a UTI as a precautionary measure, but seemed well enough, with very little recollection of the previous night's events. Probably just as well as he had also knocked on a neighbour's door at 10.00p.m. asking where his wife was, the neighbour is 84!
Yesterday evening, Dad, rang me, saying that the police still hadn't got back to him about "this missing person", though he couldn't remember, who it was, so I reassured him that "No news was good news, and they would probably be in touch in the morning" .
I am dreading this evening, just in case this could be a new phase for dad; with another strange phone call, and also now, in case he goes out looking for this 'missing person', as his road safety awareness is not good nowadays.
If you have managed to stay with me till this point, I thank you for very much for reading and letting me get this off my chest!
As this was the first time this has happened, I wasn't sure how to react, so I asked him to make dad a of tea, and reassure him that everything was OK
Anyhow, there were no more calls that night, so I assume the PC managed OK.
Friday morning, I went to put air in tyres and fuel in car before my usual Friday visit to dad, to find a nail in the tyre, so, a quick trip to the tyre garage ensued.The journey usually takes about 50 minutes, but today there were roadworks, tyres, slow traffic... etc, after over an hour I arrive at dad's village and go straight to the solicitors to pay a bill (story on another thread), card didn't work, so I went to the bank to see what was happening, apparently, someone had cancelled the card.A new card was duly ordered, an I was advised to use a cheque when shopping for dad.
Before, stocking up in the local supermarket, I asked if they accepted cheques. "No" was the answer, so back to the bank I go, and explain. As it is only a small branch, and they are now getting to know my face, they said that they could I could withdraw money over the counter, we than got chatting. Off I go to the supermarket, only to realise that I hadn't been given the money I requested, only the receipt! Back to the bank for the third time, fortunately, the assistant had remembered and had the money on one side waiting for me. Finally, I was able to do some shopping for dad, only to get to the queue, to find only one assistant on the tills and she was having problems either someone else's card! After about 5 minutes of waiting, and getting extremely twitchy, I asked her to ask for help. I finally arrived at dad's house just 10 minutes before the cut-off time to ring for a GP home visit.
If you have ever seen the John Cleese film "Clockwise", you will know how I was feeling by now!
To cut a long story short, Dad has been prescribed antibiotics for a UTI as a precautionary measure, but seemed well enough, with very little recollection of the previous night's events. Probably just as well as he had also knocked on a neighbour's door at 10.00p.m. asking where his wife was, the neighbour is 84!
Yesterday evening, Dad, rang me, saying that the police still hadn't got back to him about "this missing person", though he couldn't remember, who it was, so I reassured him that "No news was good news, and they would probably be in touch in the morning" .
I am dreading this evening, just in case this could be a new phase for dad; with another strange phone call, and also now, in case he goes out looking for this 'missing person', as his road safety awareness is not good nowadays.
If you have managed to stay with me till this point, I thank you for very much for reading and letting me get this off my chest!
