Might be a Silent Night for a while here.

This post is largely for those of you who have met my Mum-In-Law, and know what a sweet lady she is. Ken's Mum is slipping away from us, so if she passes away in the next week or so, I won't be posting much on the blogs for a while. We have been visiting her every night since she was admitted to hospital on Christmas Eve. Having worked in the field of aged care for 10 years, I could see all the signs - skin deterioration, short term memory loss, etc. and I've been talking to Ken about it after we've been with his Mum. Tonight she wanted to talk about her early years and although we've heard it all before (and Ken gets a bit impatient), I let her talk on and eyeballed Ken to keep his mouth shut! He caught on, and held his Mum's hand while she talked. So far he is coping well, and we talk to his sister every night. She visits her Mum every day in the afternoon, and we go at night, so MIL has someone there twice a day instead of all at once.


Ken said something to his Mum tonight about going back home and she said "I'm not going back home. I can't even remember what the house looks like now. But it doesn't matter any more. I'm content to be here in bed, and be looked after by the nurses, they are all so kind". I told her she has been much more than a mother in law to me; she is a much loved friend. We have had such fun together over the years, because we share so many interests (embroidery and her son!) and we have a similar sense of humour. Tonight, I told her she must not 'go to sleep' before Tuesday, because that will be our 30th wedding anniversary, and we want to share the evening with her. She opened her eyes wide and said "What, are you going to die before then? I'm not going anywhere!" and chuckled. Then she told us she had already organised for a card to be sent to us. She's never missed an anniversary yet.