Five years

We all have different relations with our parents, and especiallyour Mothers. So this is just mypoint of view.

Yesterday was the 26th September, five years snce Mum passed away.

Of course we talked about her in the car as we drove, but the question Jools asked is has my life changed.

If it has, then only for the better.

This trip showed we have disposable income to throw around, buy expensive bottles of wine, eat out and not think of the cost. We know we're lucky. And that and the rest of our life is only possible because the residue of Mum's estate paid of our mortgage.

Do Iwish she died still?

No. Not all all. But she chose to live her life the way she did, as was her right, but that came with a cost in the end.

As did not moving out of the family home into sheltered housing or care. She had one last chance, in JUly 2019, but delared herself cured of all ailments, so there was no need.

Two months later she was gone.

Her cleaner, Sheila, who has cleaned for many old ladies like Mum saw the signs and knew the end was near. I thought Mum was made of stronger genes, but it seems those kept her alive as long as she did.

The care package provided when she left hospital, and their instructions not to go to the toilet on her own meant she moved even less than before her bypass, when the surgeon told us the operation had the possibility to transform her life.

All the promises from Mum regarding change and not smoking, were broken, as they always were. She died, where she wanted to be, in the house she and Dad bought in 1964. Other than to going to hospital, she had not been out of the house for two years, a willing prisoner.