Visiting Mum: Postscript
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First of all, thanks to all of you who wished me well or shared their own stories, when I posted that I was about to fly to England to visit my mother in hospital. My visit was difficult - but different to what I'd expected. Mum was lucid on and off, but at times very confused. She also reverted to childish behaviour a lot - I finally understand exactly what "second childhood" means. At times she was devious, often petulant, and occasionally angry. My visit was affected by the unpronouncable Icelandic volcano ash-cloud. I ended up getting back two days late (much better than thousands of stranded holiday-makers) with a mad dash through customs and immigration at DFW, where I caught my connecting flight with 3 minutes to spare; and finally got into Sacramento several hours late because of a detour around some bad weather just out of Dallas, and another to Phoenix for an unplanned refueling! Still, I'm home now and things are slowly getting back to normal for me. I don't know if my trip made any difference to Mum. She recognized me (and was surprised to see me each morning) but she ignored all the loving advise I was trying to give. However, the visit let me say my goodbyes to her, repair my relationship with my sister, and re-acquaint myself with my step-sister and some of Mum's friends. But if I ever get like Mum ... just shoot me!
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First of all, thanks to all of you who wished me well or shared their own stories, when I posted that I was about to fly to England to visit my mother in hospital. My visit was difficult - but different to what I'd expected. Mum was lucid on and off, but at times very confused. She also reverted to childish behaviour a lot - I finally understand exactly what "second childhood" means. At times she was devious, often petulant, and occasionally angry. My visit was affected by the unpronouncable Icelandic volcano ash-cloud. I ended up getting back two days late (much better than thousands of stranded holiday-makers) with a mad dash through customs and immigration at DFW, where I caught my connecting flight with 3 minutes to spare; and finally got into Sacramento several hours late because of a detour around some bad weather just out of Dallas, and another to Phoenix for an unplanned refueling! Still, I'm home now and things are slowly getting back to normal for me. I don't know if my trip made any difference to Mum. She recognized me (and was surprised to see me each morning) but she ignored all the loving advise I was trying to give. However, the visit let me say my goodbyes to her, repair my relationship with my sister, and re-acquaint myself with my step-sister and some of Mum's friends. But if I ever get like Mum ... just shoot me!
Good for you, man! They say 20 years later you are more likely to regret the things you didn't do more than the things you did. Good of you to not commit that mistake.
Cheers, Vikram. (Got my troika of CCCs!)
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Good for you, man! They say 20 years later you are more likely to regret the things you didn't do more than the things you did. Good of you to not commit that mistake.
Cheers, Vikram. (Got my troika of CCCs!)