Hi, TP. I’m posting again, by now you can probably guess why…
Yep, my grandma came round to the house again! No prizes for the winners, though perhaps that’d make all this easier to deal with
She’d come round once already (though unusually, I’d not heard her ring the doorbell or knock, but had only seen her walking up the road afterwards). The second time, she came round just as my mum was getting ready for an awards ceremony that my younger sister was being honoured at. She’d rang to tell Grandma about this beforehand, but of course, this was ignored. Grandma said that she knew she was going out and that was why she’d come round when she did, but I highly doubt this.
Despite the baking temperatures outside, she wearing her usual winter coat. When mum inevitably questioned her on this, she said she’d put it on because she thought it was going to rain(!). Mum understandably got very frustrated at this, at one point asking her point blank “Does it look like rain?!” It’s important to note that this isn’t the first time Grandma appears to have done things that aren’t in keeping with the weather conditions - a few days ago mum said that she’d had the fire on when she’d gone in to check on her. From all accounts though, it doesn’t seem as if she’s dehydrated.
The purpose of her visit - if there even was one - was clear. As ever, she was confused about old letters, that she said she’d kept in her bag “in case she needed to show the doctors”. Mum’s got into arguments with her when it came to discarding these before, so this time she gave it back to her with the dates crossed out.
Another key point from today was her fixation on giving me and my sister “pocket money”; something she stopped doing a long time ago, at least with real coins. I would’ve declined, but to save another argument I just accepted it. It came to 50p for each of us, divided into unequal coins (one 50p piece, and two 20ps and a 10p) but after she’d made me take them her line of questioning until she left was constantly about whether she’d given us money, or whether we’d taken it. Going back to issues covered in my other, longer thread, I can definitely see her short term memory getting worse through incidents like this.
More generally, her tone at points was very childlike - one time, when Mum asked for her to put various coins back in her purse, she said “no” in a way that sounded like a toddler. Again, mum’s mentioned some mental regression before, which is something I’m also increasingly worried about.
Mum did try to explain my sister’s award ceremony, and the fact she’s now 16 and moving onto A-Levels, but Grandma seemed to almost completely ignore that in favour of going back to her usual delusions (people coming into her house at night, who she now defends against with a “pepper pot” rather than a broom or her husband’s old truncheon) alongside her imaginary nighttime routine.
Oh, and she also popped back in 5 minutes later, asking if she’d left her red handbag. She wasn’t even carrying a bag with her.
I’ve said this before, and know it’s not the right thing to feel, but as I said very plainly to my parents before they left tonight, I’m left with two constant feelings: helplessness and hate. Living week to week just seems like a plaster on a much bigger wound, and coupled with the fact this woman is a source of anger like my grandma never was, it can be difficult to cope with.
In any case, my parents’ outing means I’ve now got the house to myself for a few hours. Hopefully I can finally finish that fanfiction I’ve been writing for weeks!
Yep, my grandma came round to the house again! No prizes for the winners, though perhaps that’d make all this easier to deal with
She’d come round once already (though unusually, I’d not heard her ring the doorbell or knock, but had only seen her walking up the road afterwards). The second time, she came round just as my mum was getting ready for an awards ceremony that my younger sister was being honoured at. She’d rang to tell Grandma about this beforehand, but of course, this was ignored. Grandma said that she knew she was going out and that was why she’d come round when she did, but I highly doubt this.
Despite the baking temperatures outside, she wearing her usual winter coat. When mum inevitably questioned her on this, she said she’d put it on because she thought it was going to rain(!). Mum understandably got very frustrated at this, at one point asking her point blank “Does it look like rain?!” It’s important to note that this isn’t the first time Grandma appears to have done things that aren’t in keeping with the weather conditions - a few days ago mum said that she’d had the fire on when she’d gone in to check on her. From all accounts though, it doesn’t seem as if she’s dehydrated.
The purpose of her visit - if there even was one - was clear. As ever, she was confused about old letters, that she said she’d kept in her bag “in case she needed to show the doctors”. Mum’s got into arguments with her when it came to discarding these before, so this time she gave it back to her with the dates crossed out.
Another key point from today was her fixation on giving me and my sister “pocket money”; something she stopped doing a long time ago, at least with real coins. I would’ve declined, but to save another argument I just accepted it. It came to 50p for each of us, divided into unequal coins (one 50p piece, and two 20ps and a 10p) but after she’d made me take them her line of questioning until she left was constantly about whether she’d given us money, or whether we’d taken it. Going back to issues covered in my other, longer thread, I can definitely see her short term memory getting worse through incidents like this.
More generally, her tone at points was very childlike - one time, when Mum asked for her to put various coins back in her purse, she said “no” in a way that sounded like a toddler. Again, mum’s mentioned some mental regression before, which is something I’m also increasingly worried about.
Mum did try to explain my sister’s award ceremony, and the fact she’s now 16 and moving onto A-Levels, but Grandma seemed to almost completely ignore that in favour of going back to her usual delusions (people coming into her house at night, who she now defends against with a “pepper pot” rather than a broom or her husband’s old truncheon) alongside her imaginary nighttime routine.
Oh, and she also popped back in 5 minutes later, asking if she’d left her red handbag. She wasn’t even carrying a bag with her.
I’ve said this before, and know it’s not the right thing to feel, but as I said very plainly to my parents before they left tonight, I’m left with two constant feelings: helplessness and hate. Living week to week just seems like a plaster on a much bigger wound, and coupled with the fact this woman is a source of anger like my grandma never was, it can be difficult to cope with.
In any case, my parents’ outing means I’ve now got the house to myself for a few hours. Hopefully I can finally finish that fanfiction I’ve been writing for weeks!
