Mum and Uncle John Get To Know Each Other Again

Mum and Uncle John Get To Know Each Other Again.

When we got back home from Heathrow with Uncle John, Mum was very happy to see him. He was a bit tired from the long flight, but didn't suffer from jet lag; he was soon he was in fine fettle and adjusted to English time.

Mum was more mobile in 2009, and they would sit at the table together and have breakfast. In the mornings, he liked his cornflakes and All Bran; Mum would have a bowl of cornflakes, and they would be quite companionable.

I had warned Uncle John that Mum could have a few "funny five minutes;" having mentioned it to him, I just hoped everything would go gently, and we would all have a happy family time.

To begin with, Mum was very much in "Older Sister" mode, directing most of the conversations, reminiscing about what they had done when they were children, and the different places they had lived in, but trouble began to brew when Mum recalled an event in their past, that clearly didn't tally with how Uncle John remembered it.

"No, Phyllis," he would say, "our Mam didn't do that/go there/say that...." Uncle John would then explain how he remembered the occasion, and Mum would be adamant it had happened the way she remembered it. He was a bit surprised that Mum seemed unable to have a sensible discussion, to see if they could establish what had eally happened; instead, Mum would go stomping off to her bedroom and become incommunicado for hours, whilst Uncle John was left shaking his head, perplexed at Mum's confusion.

We explained Mum was having these turns, but not to pay too much attention to them; being pragmatic, Uncle John accepted her as she was, although occasionally, if her assertions were really extreme and untrue, he would say outright that he disagreed with her.

We had a few long conversations about Mum.

I asked him, "Was Mum ever a bit strange when she was young?"

His response was immediate: "No! She was fine - she was a lovely sister - perfectly normal."