It has been far too long since I posted. I apologise to my reader! A combination of coursework PC issues and family issues has caused me to have even less time to think and write. I am now writing on a borrowed laptop and some of the keys do not work so commas are impossible!
Anyway the last couple of weeks have been very difficult. As written about at the beginning of the year we recently lost my father in law. Well the fall out is now starting to take its toll. While dog walking in recent weeks a number of blog posts have rushed around my head. Mostly they have related to coping with elderly relatives circle of life etc
My mother in law lives in Ireland still. She is increasingly frail and confused but utterly refuses to consider any solution other than living in her own home. Historically in Ireland the elders of a family did stay in their own homes. Large families just accepted that in general their parents died at home looked after one of the siblings. That sibling then took over the home and the land as theirs. until relatively recently that has been the way. Thus now that we are looking for solutions we are realising that very little is available other than full nursing care. In the |UK my grandparents' generation were able to consider sheltered accommodation type places. Their own flats but with help available and hot meals and social activities if they wanted them. There is a distinct lack of such places in the part of Ireland where we need them.
But frankly hats off to the families who have dealt with their elders for generation after generation. It is hard hard work. And it must have been considerably harder in the days before any state help a health service and the general change in knowledge of dementia and other illnesses. We are a fortnight into a stay and I am exhausted.
I am going to post this short piece so that anyone who actually reads my stuff regularly (thank you!) knows I haven't given up. PC and commas back next week I hope....
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