3rd October, 2010
Last night was our first in Pauline’s Mum’s warden assisted flats. We have rented the guest bedroom which is just two doors down from hers. It allows us to be quickly available if she needs us. She goes to bed at 6.00 pm and gets up at around 5.00 am. By the time we get up at 7.00 am, she has washed, dressed, made and eaten her porridge and tea and she is reading her book. She is looking a lot better but she isn’t well. She has fluid on the lungs which is making her breathing difficult. A couple of weeks ago, one of her legs, which swells hugely and painfully during the day, burst and water and blood ran everywhere. The nurses who came to treat her didn’t get it right and the leg became infected and very sore. She was prescribed antibiotics by a locum who didn’t know she was allergic to them and this triggered the current crisis.
A quiet day reading the Sunday papers on Sunday. It poured with rain all day.
4th October, 2010
We don’t know how long we can afford to rent the room – it cost £2.00 per day – but we are going in to Huddersfield this morning so Pauline can have her hair cut, we can have our tyres checked and start to look for a temporary flat to rent. There are a huge number of brand new flats on the rental market here with carpets and white goods but unfurnished. We want to take one on for six months so we can look after Mum and go house hunting in the South. It has to be in our doctor’s catchment area. A 2 bedroom apartment like this is going for around £500.00 per month which is peanuts really and will do us well.
I wrote too soon! We got down to our car to find we had left a small reading light on inside on Sunday morning and our battery was completely dead. We had to phone the AA. They came in about 20 minutes and a nice lad revived us in 10 minutes. Unfortunately, we were just too late to make the hair appointment but rearranged it for tomorrow. We still drove across the Pennines on this glorious day to visit Sainsburys and took some photographs. There is something fantastic about the elemental nature of the Pennine hills.
5th October, 2010
Happy Birthday to my darling, Pauline. She is 59 today but looks 30 20 years younger. We are going out for Lunch after she has been to the hairdressers. Unfortunately, Pauline’s Mum had a rather bad day which rather overshadowed things.
6th October, 2010
Torrential rain this morning. Unfortunately, unlike Jane, I am not too important to notice. We have appointments in Huddersfield this morning to view apartments on six month lets. The sooner we get this end tied up, the sooner we can look for property to buy in the South.
We viewed the first ground floor apartment in a old, non-conformist chapel. It had been sandblasted and split into four apartments. As we walked in through the huge, iron door on to stone flags, the smell of new paint mingled with the distinct smell of damp. We quickly made our apologies and left.
We then went on to a new propertyin a new ‘estate’. It was a two-bedroomed second floor apartment but was so small that the Master bedroom was about the size of our ensuite in the house we have sold. We left the estate/lettings agent on a positive note and he had two more viewings immediately after us – we passed them as we went out – but the moment we got to our car, we both spontaneously said, NO and moved on.
We drove back to Oldham to find that Pauline’s Mum had been unwell with chest pains. In spite of her protests, we phoned her doctor who told us to get an ambulance. The change in an old lady of 96 was amazing. From someone who had terrible chest pains and couldn’t breathe well, the sight of an ambulance team brought out wise cracks and an attempt to jog round the room. She was distinctly deflated when told she had no choice and would have to go to hospital. When we got her there, she expected to be released after her blood test but was furious to be told that she would have to stay over night to have further tests.
7th October, 2010
We have been told to phone the hospital after 11.30 am to see if the monster was ready to be released. In the meantime, Pauline found a penthouse suite in a new apartment block that is currently for let and she made an appointment to view it tomorrow afternoon. The hospital tell is she is not being released today. We go down to see her. It is confirmed that she has had a heart attack. She doesn’t think much of that diagnosis but realises she can’t get away until permitted. In the ward, there are three other women lying flat out. She is dressed and walking around. Pauline gives her her walking stick and stands back. We have taken her current book for her to read. She is being told that she has to spend two more nights there while her drugs are rebalanced.
After a couple of hours we leave. Just as we do an estate agent phones to say that a new block of Charles Church apartments, which we have watched go up, are about to be completed in a fortnight. Clearly, they have no confidence at all of selling them because they are to be offered to us immediately on short term rental terms. We will be able to see them next week. We will be back at the hospital tonight to visit the caged monster.
8th October, 2010
We continued our dual activities of vising rental properties and visiting hospitals. In the morning we went to look at a penthouse suite of two bedrooms, dressing room, two bathrooms, kitchen diner, lounge and balcony overlooking the grounds. It had a mezzenine bedroom and was full of tubular steel and industrial sized windows inteded to appeal to 20/30 something professionals. It felt cold, impersonal and strangely laid out. We decided against it even for six months.
In the afternoon, we visit Pauline’s Mum in hospital to be told that she has had another heart flutter in between running round the ward. They want to keep her in until Monday and she seems quite happy about it and says she is in the right place to be sorted out. The nursing staff want her to stay because she keeps everyone else entertained and happy.