Falling in love again...

Well I'm back....

I'd love to tell you that I have been living it up with the husband on some round the world cruise, but this would be a fib of epic proportion.

A couple of weeks before Christmas, in her infinite wisdom, the mother decided to test the laws of gravity, launching herself into oblivion while on a simple dog walk.  This minor experiment resulted in a couple of broken ribs which in themselves although bloody painful, don't really effect life in a massive way (I should know, I've been there).  

However, it became obvious that there was more than just a couple of broken ribs and after enough X-rays to ensure that she now glows as the sun goes down, we got the news that she had lacerated her liver which was now in acute failure.  Add some internal bleeding, fluid on one lung and a touch of salmonella, and you'll understand that those three weeks in hospital were probably the worst time our family has ever had to deal with.

Once the mother got to a state where she was eating again, the doctors decided that she could go home as long as she had twenty four hour supervision.  This was on New Year's Eve.  The husband had a fab night out planned in London to make up for all the days spent at the hospital over Christmas, and I was really looking forward to putting on my glad rags for the fireworks.  Sitting with the mother, I watched her little face light up.  'I can go home then?'  

So the fireworks were put on hold, the house cleaned from top to bottom in readiness for her, and on New Year's Eve at 7.30pm, we brought her home.

She stayed for three weeks, and in the end, we moved her partner in to help with the care.  Oh, and their dog which my two thought was just great as they had a girl on sleepover night after night.

She went home last week, and the house is very quiet without her.  This is strange in itself as she is very tiny and potters about the house like a mouse in a pinny.  I've always loved my mum obviously, but I think that as you grow older, and you have your own life with children and work, you can sometimes forget that there was once this strong beautiful woman who basically taught you how to use a spoon.  

So I fell in love with my mum all over again over the past few weeks, and enjoyed the simple pleasures of sitting with her while she watched old musicals and drank copious amounts of tea.  

She's definitely on the mend now, which is something I feared wouldn't happen a couple of times in December, and yesterday while we were watching some old rubbish on the television, she told me that she doesn't remember being in hospital at all.

Luckily for her I do, so I was able to tell her about how mortified I was to come into her room one morning when the dishiest of doctors was talking to her, only to find that she'd been up in the night and washed through all of her underwear.  There were three pairs of drawers draped across the radiator, and in her wisdom she had hung a bra (not worn once while she was in there) from the window latch where it swing gaily in the breeze.

So there you are.  Just when you think that clock of life is ticking along quite nicely, sometimes the batteries fail...