Thank you for the nice comments I have received about my blog during our holiday to Scotland. Are you now short of something to read?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now I am back I have continued with my favourite hobbies of reading and writing. Yesterday I wrote ‘Lilian’s Last Protest’. I have added this and seven other stories I have written during Lockdown to my site. If you would like to read them click on ‘Create’ to access ‘My Creations’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lilian\u2019s Final Protest<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n I realise that, at 88 years old, I was getting a bit long in the tooth to be protesting, especially by climbing up a ladder and spray painting the side wall of the corner shop. Fed up with the \u2018black\/white lives matter\u2019 nonsense (obviously all lives matter) I was adding my own view by painting \u2018Old Lives Matter\u2019 on the wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just as I was putting the finishing touches to the \u2018r\u2019 a car behind me honked its horn. I jumped, and turned round, the walker overbalanced, and here I am in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital with a broken hip and battered face. Talk about wearing gloves to stop leaving any DNA! I left plenty of blood and skin cells, and was still holding the spray can when the ambulance arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s not all bad, though. No one is pressing charges, my hip needed replacing anyway \u2013 been on the list for months, and everyone is being very kind to me. I\u2019m a bit of a local celebrity. Jordan, the young man who was in the car with his brother, managed to take a photo of me before Jackson hooted his horn. That photo, and one of me being stretchered into the ambulance, has been in the local paper, and on TV. I\u2019m the \u2018Old Lives Matter\u2019 lady!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve had loads of calls and gifts from well wishers. Not many visitors as it\u2019s still \u2018family only, one visitor per time slot\u2019, but Keith drove down from Aberdeen to visit, so that was nice. Haven\u2019t seen him in ages. I even got a card from Sir Captain Tom. Imagine that!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m getting out of here on Monday. They won\u2019t let me go home as I will find it difficult to cope with the stairs until my hip is stronger. I\u2019m going to \u2018The Gables\u2019 care home. It\u2019s a lovely place according to the social worker. Couldn\u2019t bear the thought of going to \u2018Parklands\u2019 where my Bill spent his last weeks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n *********************************<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cMorning, Lilian. It\u2019s another beautiful day. Did you sleep well, Lovie?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNot too bad, mustn\u2019t grumble.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cYou never do, Lilian, but some of them others \u2026.\u201d Amy\u2019s one of the senior carers in the home. She always has a smile on her face. So do the others. I don\u2019t know how they do it. Caring for us old \u2018uns all day long, for a pittance. The last few months have been hard for them, and I know they lost a few residents in the early days. They must have been worried sick about taking the virus back to their own families. Been Covid free for weeks now though, thank goodness. I\u2019m quite enjoying my stay. It\u2019s almost like staying in a very solicitous hotel, and I\u2019m getting to know some of the others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The hardest thing for most of the elderly people in here is that they can\u2019t enjoy visits like they used to. Elizabeth\u2019s husband used to visit every day and have morning coffee with her. Now he has to book a half hour slot once a week and that is cancelled if it rains as they have to meet outside. She\u2019s worrying about the winter time. Will she ever get to see her Robert? Some of the dementia sufferers won\u2019t remember their loved ones if they don\u2019t see them regularly. Michael used to enjoy a daily walk with one of his family but now he\u2019s not allowed out. I realise that it is not the fault of the managers here, but I wonder if people know what is happening in care homes around the country. Boris seems to have forgotten us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Art and Craft class that morning gave me an idea. I asked if I could take a few sheets of paper and pens so that I could work on perfecting my still life drawing. After tea I sat with Elizabeth at a table in a quiet corner of the lounge. When I explained what I wanted to do she was delighted to lend a hand. By bedtime we had six signs ready \u2013<\/p>\n\n\n\n Families Matter<\/p>\n\n\n\n We Need Visitors<\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us Meet<\/p>\n\n\n\n We are not prisoners<\/p>\n\n\n\n A visit a day keeps the Doctor away<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dying for a visit<\/p>\n\n\n\n Breakfast time tomorrow morning should be interesting! Hope someone has their camera\/phone ready.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I fall asleep with a smile on my face. Bill would be so proud of me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Thank you for the nice comments I have received about my blog during our holiday to Scotland. Are you now short of something to read? Now I am back I have continued with my favourite hobbies of reading and writing. Yesterday I wrote ‘Lilian’s Last Protest’. I have added this and seven other stories I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[40],"class_list":["post-1899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing","tag-short-stories"],"aioseo_notices":[],"views":1366,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Carol","author_link":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/author\/admin\/"},"rttpg_comment":2,"rttpg_category":"Writing<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"Thank you for the nice comments I have received about my blog during our holiday to Scotland. Are you now short of something to read? Now I am back I have continued with my favourite hobbies of reading and writing. Yesterday I wrote ‘Lilian’s Last Protest’. I have added this and seven other stories I…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1899"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1900,"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1899\/revisions\/1900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolbarton.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}