Character Studies

Last spring, when the first lockdown began, the task to check in daily on our elderly mother fell to me. I was no longer working in an office, and since I lived alone I could more easily limit social contacts and ensure her safety.

My brother and sister-in-law handled the weekly food shopping (dropped off at the side door) as well as Mum’s monthly haircut (with her seated smack in the centre of the back garden on a white-gone-grey plastic lawn chair).

Mum is 88 and lives on her own in the home she and my father moved into after their retirement. Dad passed away about 12 years ago—he fell ill just as my parents were about to celebrate their 50th anniversary.