Japanese quince

Blipped on the way home from the bus stop.

I met with D in Cheltenham. He was already seated in the Thai restaurant but didn’t tell me this, with the result that I waited outside for some time….

D has been diagnosed with vascular Parkinsonism since was last met. His hand tremor is visible and I think his speech is slowing. He also told me that he was going on holiday on Friday week, 29th August. I pointed out that this is in fact next week, not the week after next. He thanked me. Oh dear….

We had a very good lunch (Tom yum soup and stir fried aubergine for me) and then went to a couple of shops to indulge my stationery fetish, then to M&S for a flat cap for him, and some shoes. He could not slip his feet into any shoes, and crumpled down the back of the deck shoes. It was heartbreaking to watch. He hates flip flops, and there were no fake Birkenstocks in his size. We tried another shop. Same thing. And another….he says he will return to M&S armed with a shoe horn next week. After that he was exhausted so we went to a Cornish pasty shop where he demanded to know what I meant by the word ‘tokenistic’ and said it sounded like a Canadian place name. Dear me!

I ran off and caught my bus home. All this had taken around four hours.

I cannot help but think that, though I was not actively able to care for my mother during her twilight years, because I lived 400 miles away, I am seeing more and more cases of what seems likes dementia or pre-dementia in my acquaintances and caseloads. Whether they have a formal diagnosis or not, I’ve had some very odd conversations lately, and not just about Canadian place names.

The weather obliged again, and it was a lovely day, though I was exhausted by my brief time with D. How much more exhausting it must be for him to live though his day, at his pace.