Driving Home for Christmas

On the 23rd December I came home for Christmas - alright I didn’t drive, but it’s a better title for this piece! I was one of an estimated 10,000 people landing at Belfast City Airport that day. There is always a great atmosphere, Santa and Mrs Claus obviously welcome but even better was Mr Tayto. Like so many of the 10,000 I looked forward to the yellow bag of crispy goodness that said, “I’m home!”

Since I graduated 7 years ago and had been offered a job in Manchester the Christmas homecoming was sacred. Like many of us working across the water I made it home a few times a year, but this Christmas visit was sacred, full of traditions, fun catch ups and my welcoming childhood bedroom.

So, the 23rd goes like this: Fight through arrivals reaching over what feels like the whole 10,000 fellow passengers to get my case and file through the wee glass doors. Receive my Christmas bag of Tayto and go outside to catch a taxi for the 25 minute drive to Carryduff where my Mum lived alone, Dad having died when I was 16. Mum will have made a pot of stew, the perfect “Don’t worry if you’re delayed dinner” that could be reheated quickly and tasted better the longer it cooked. After dinner I would ceremoniously put the tissue paper/mutilated barbie angel on top of the tree – a tradition followed since Mum and I made her when I was in primary 4. Then Mum and I would pile into my room where she would natter away with all the local gossip and I would unpack. The chatting would carry on long after the unpacking, continuing over present wrapping and late night supper of toasted pancakes and a cup of Barry’s tea…bliss every minute of it, and I was impatient for the taxi to arrive.

When I arrived home I knew immediately something was wrong, Mum was full of hugs and so glad to see me, “I’m starving" I said, can’t wait for a big bowl of stew to warm me up!”  Mum looked crestfallen, she said she didn’t think I would like stew and she had made Bolognese.

As the evening and indeed the trip home went on I noticed that things just weren’t right. The house wasn’t dirty as such but it certainly wasn’t at the same standard it usually was. Some of the traditional things Mum usually bought for Christmas weren’t there, I mean, there was no tin of Roses!!! ( I don’t really like Roses but they were a Christmas staple!) Mum’s wall calendar was covered in notes, every day had an instruction written carefully on it, not all exciting days out but boring ordinary things that Mum never needed to write down usually.

Mum herself looked frailer, she was more tired than she usually was and her walking seemed just a little bit faltering. We had a lovely Christmas that year as usual. I found myself doing a lot more of the meal preparation and gave the house a good once over. More importantly I phoned my brother in Australia and told him I was worried about how well Mum was coping. He was so upset, I have always been the most practical of us two, and he felt so guilty for having made his life so far away. A year working in Melbourne had turned out to be a new life with his wife (from Tyrone, met in a club in Melbourne of course!) Their children were in school there, his business was going so well and Claire was deputy head of the local school. They had a lovely home and a great standard of living, resettlement on Carryduff wasn’t an option. Personally, my career was going well in Manchester, while I wasn’t married I had a great lifestyle and a great career and a move home wouldn’t be my priority either.

Luckily Sean believed everything I said about Mum, he confirmed that she had even missed an odd weekly facetime with him, something usually sacrosanct. "Joanne you need to sort this", he said. Get someone in to help her. We agreed that we could both chip in some money weekly to make sure Mum was safe and the house kept up to her usual standards.

That’s when I found Silver Cloud Care NI. They were so helpful on the phone and seemed to be so familiar with this sort of situation. Before I went back to Manchester on 5th January they had been able to identify two people on their team who would call with Mum. They had been to meet Mum and between us we had worked out a schedule that would best fit in with her life.

Their staff were Access NI checked and had lots of relevant training. Best of all they had an amazing app. With Mum’s permission Sean and I were able to have access to the “family app” meaning we could see daily who had called with Mum, what they had done that day and how she was.

Sean was home in the summer and met the team, he really liked them, He felt that Mum had a bit of her old spark back. The team who called lit the fire if it was needed, prepared a light lunch, did some laundry and left an evening meal ready.

We know that because Silver Cloud Care are registered with The Regulation and Improvement Authority that if it is ever needed they can deliver personal care to Mum, meaning that she need never have to go into a care home, something she has made it clear that she doesn’t want to do. They are so knowledgeable about how this can be funded in the future. Honestly it has been a real weight off our minds.

So it is a year on. My bags are packed and presents bought. Staff Christmas do was last week and I am ready to travel home for Christmas. I have been chatting to Mary and Margaret via the family app (Mum’s dream team of Silver carers) and they have promised to leave the tree angel for me to do and will leave a pot of stew for next Monday. As long as Mr Tayto doesn’t let me down at the airport I should have a lovely Christmas!

Contact Silver Cloud Care NI today to discuss how we can help you and your loved one.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Email : info@silvercloudcareni.co.uk

Telephone: 028 9252 8010