The Blue Lamp

The Blue Lamp

ACT 1

The question came, as it were, "out of the blue:"

Mum (slightly querulous):
Where's my blue lamp?

Alex (thinking hard):
What blue lamp do you mean, Ma?

Mum:
My blue lamp.

Alex (having just remembered there are a matching pair of blue lamps, upstairs.  Mum has used one as a bedside light, but the bulb needs replacing):
Oh, I know the one.  I'll get it for you.

Alex exits, runs upstairs and picks up the other lamp with a serviceable bulb.

Alex (back in Mum's room, presents the lamp with a flourish):
There you are!

Mum looks at the lamp:
That's not it!

Alex:
Yes it is - it's the one you were using, but it got dropped, and the bulb went. It's working, now.

Mum:
No, that's not the lamp I want.  I want the lamp my dad made for me.

Alex (thinking even harder):
But, Mum, your dad died in 1943. He must have made it for you a very long time ago.

Mum:
Yes, he did.

Alex:
But, Mum, since then, you've lived in East Africa for nearly 40 years, you travelled backwards and forwards to England many times..... Where do you think the lamp could be?

Mum:
I don't know. (She pauses, then insists): YOU had it!

Alex is in a quandary.  She has been told that you should always agree with people who have dementia, but no-one has come up with advice to cope with this scenario. She presumes the lamp must have existed, but even if it survived being packed and unpacked for all those journeys out abroad and back home again, she has no memory of ever seeing a blue lamp.

Alex:
Can you remind me what it looks like?

Mum:
It's blue.

Alex:
O.K.  I'm trying to think where it could be.  You know we have tidied up a lot......

Mum:
My dad made it for me. If you've lost it.......!

Alex:
No, no, I'm sure it's not lost.  It's just that we put some things in the shed whilst we were tidying up. It's all safe - I've just got to go and look through the things we wrapped up, so it might take a while.

Mum:
I want to have my lamp back.

Alex (placatingly):
Look, I've got to go and get the dinner on. Let me do that first, get the carrots and the potatoes peeled, and then I'll go and have a look for it.  Is that alright?

Mum (reluctantly):
Yes, alright. But I want my blue lamp.

Alex:
I know. I'll look for it later.

ACT 2

Happily for Alex, by the time the dinner was cooking, Mum's memories of the blue lamp had "gone off the boil," and she didn't ask for it again that day.  By the time the subject of the blue lamp came up again, the idea of the time-delay locked safe in the lounge had been decided upon. This was a great device; having worked in a bank, Mum was aware of security measures, and it postponed having to find non-existent treasures/papers/documents etc., for her.  Suggesting the time delay won us a welcome reprieve, and a reasonable chance that Mum's memories would be diverted, and focus on something else.