Good morning folks,
Saturday was a "special" day, a day that had taken many many months if not several years to come about. On Saturday I finally got my mum over to my home and she was able to meet the boys. It was a day not without considerable stress and worries though. First of all, depsite talking to the home manageress and several members of the nursing home staff in advance, as usual the person on the spot didn't know anything about it!. I had arranged for dial-a-ride to pick her up from the home and run her over to me, the first time I've used the service and, I'm happy to report they were excellent. When she arrived the problems started, she has a wheelchair which is "huge" with the side wheels on that the occupant can propel themselves which add considerable width to the chair and which are stupid as she can't propel herself as she can't use her hands. I knew that getting her down my hallway would be a very very tight squeeze but I never thought that it would prove almost imposible to get her in the front door! then round 90 degrees down the hall and then 90 degrees again into my lounge. Basilcally we, the driver and myself, only achieved it by taking the leg rests off and half pushing and bumping the chair with those stupid wheels scraping either side of the doorframe and then the hallway radiator and opposite wall, it looked for a while like mission impossible but, as they say, "where there's a will" etc.
From then on I'm delighted to say that the day went brilliantly, I had invited my cousin Vanessa and a friend round and mum had a lovelly time chatting with them and, most of all, meeting Alfie and Frankie. She's never met them as, in the last three years since I adopted Alfie and then Frankie and my previous 2nd floor flat she's never been able to come round. The boys were great, I don't get that many vistors and four people and a wheelchair all at the same time was a new experience for them. The boys are so much more relaxed in their new home and Frankie let me hold him whilst she stroked him and Alfie let her play with him with the Da Bird. It's more than three years since she's been that close to cat and it was lovelly seeing them together. I cooked lunch and we all had a splendid time until the equally difficult taks of getting her back out of the flat. Anticipating all of these problems in advance, I was annoyed that my request that she be put in a smaller wheelchair hadn't been acted on by the home. I am looking at buying her a smaller, more lkghtweight chair without those
great wheels in time for her next visit but all in all it was a brilliant day, the boys were exhausted and both flaked out next to each other on the bed and I took a couple of pain killers as my head was pounding with a mixture of no food (kept mine warm whilst I fed mum) and the stress of getting her safely too and thro and in and out of the flat. Would I do it again tomorrow, you bet!, seeing her with the boys was "priceless".
Cheers
Leigh
