The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
LOCKDOWNBABIES
A new generation was born during a global pandemic. We speak to some local mums
27.02.2021
It is proving a better week. Mum is back from hospital. Once again, she is on an even track. But she is very tired.
My mother is in our family bubble and to keep an eye on things I move into her house on the loch.
It is a wise move. She arrives with a walking frame and a bag of medicines which makes me nervous.
Because while it is good to have her home, nursing material I am not.
When it comes to ailments mine has tended to be the “pull yourself together” type of response.
I am the one who avoided the sickroom like the plague.
Yet this time I rather surprise myself. Then perhaps Covid is making us all rethink how we approach life.
Not that mum has virus, I hasten to say.
Over the last year she has been careful about following the rules. She also had the jab a month ago and we keep all fingers and toes crossed.
So here I am. A masked Nurse Fiona. Making cups of tea. Plumping pillows. Tempting with home-made soup. And all the time, trying to maintain some sort of social distance.
It is caring rather than nursing. Because nursing takes had the years to master and while nurses are true heroes, I am a mere amateur.
I am muddling through and trying to be kind and comforting.
Under the care of the doctors, mum was given a right old MOT. Tested for all manner of things. Not least to see if there are any signs of dementia.
Asked to subtract seven from a hundred, then another seven from that and so on, she got 10 out of 10.
Questioned about what day of the week it was (who remembers that after a spell in hospital?) she advised her inquisitor to look in the newspaper: ‘I think you’ll find that it’s usually there at the top of the page, dear…’
Invited to write a sentence or two on a piece of paper she scribbled ‘My name is Polly Armstrong and I may be old, but I am not mad…’
She passed that with flying colours.
No, at the age of 92 Mum does not seem to be losing it.
Which may bode well when it comes to the gene count. We will wait and see.
In the meantime, it is a matter of being patient with the patient. She does not complain. Well, not much. But others are not so happy with their lot.
Back at our house little quiz the
MacNaughties keep running into various rooms to try to find me. Where they think I am hiding I do not know.
The chief says they miss me. And I miss them. Especially in the evening when the fire is on and the wind whistles round the loch.
The rain falls and the weather is filthy. Despite that, we have a number of blessings to count. Not least that mum lives to fight another day.
AT THE AGE OF 92 MY MUM DOES NOT SEEM TO BE LOSING IT, WHICH MAY BODE WELL WHEN IT COMES TO THE GENE COUNT. WE WILL WAIT AND SEE