“Excuse me, what is going on here?”

This week I have been thinking a lot about the funny memories, the cheeky Nan that made everyone laugh. One of most recent is one of the cutest and funniest, feisty Nan memories I have and only happened about 5 weeks before she passed away.

Nan was admitted to hospital a couple of months before she passed away. When she was up on the ward she was very settled and happy, the lady next to her was adorable and going to visit nan became visiting her also! During lock-down I have thought a lot about all our chats with Kathleen and as nan was discharged a week before the country was locked down I really hope Kathleen made it out of hospital before lock-down also.

Nan required lots of assistance with her eating so we made a point of getting there a lot at meal times. That may sound the opposite of what the ward would want but they appreciated the family being there to assist where their family members required extra help.

This one particular day Nan just wasn’t having any of it. Her food was in front of her but she just wouldn’t eat it. Between the nurses and ourselves we did our best to encourage nan but it just wasn’t happening.

It turned out Nan was having a protest over the fact she wanted to go home. She kept calling over the nurses and asking them why she was there. They would reassure her it was because she was poorly and being made better but she was having none of it. This one particular nurse Nan summoned over and went “Excuse me, what is going on here… me and my family haven’t done anything wrong… why am i here”. I don’t quite know where she thought she was but she obviously knew it wasn’t the right place.

She told this nurse that she was going home with mum and I that night. Obviously she wasn’t but this nurse had to reassure her that once she started to eat she could go home on another day. This was absolutely true, there was an agreement that once she would eat and drink a bit she could go home.

The nurse again told Nan that once she started eating she would then be able to go home on another day. Nan said “No I am going with these tonight” (I really wished by this point I could take her and wrap her up in cotton wool and looking after her). The nurse said she couldn’t go because she hadn’t eaten her food and the next line that came out of Nans mouth was so on point and sassy that I will remember it forever….

“I’ll take it with me when I go with them”

We all laughed. There was no tricking Nan. No getting round it. In the end she did eat a bit and came home the following Tuesday but it was just so cute the way she was determined that she was coming home with her family on that night.

It is hard in my head to grasp that this happened just over a month before she died. She was still so with it at time and ironically despite 3 and a half years of dementia it was actually her body that let her down before her mind let her down to the extent she wasn’t my Nan still.

I miss her so much, but I am so grateful to have these funny moments stored away in my memory.