As the car pulled away, Jess brushed away a silent tear that had slid down her cheek. It had been lovely having her mum around for a few days. She hadn’t realised quite how much she had missed her.
She tried not to dwell on things but dearly hoped her mum would be alright and that Pete wouldn’t take things too badly when her mum told him she was leaving. Did she really know him well enough to know how he would react?
As she tidied around and put some washing on, she also wondered how long she would be doing such things here in the apartment.Life throws curveballs sometimes, she thought to herself as she sat with a cup of tea in the kitchen, watching her washing go around in the drum.And other than try to be strong during difficult times, there really isn’t much we can do about that.
THIRTY-NINE
MARK
Mark was satisfied that Alice was on the mend. She had eaten all of the chicken stew he had made, and even a little bread.
Jess, Declan and Mark had a group chat now to make sure one of them popped in regularly to check on Alice. To the point of her having to shoo them away after complaining that she had no chance of recovering if her sleep was constantly disturbed, albeit with a grateful smile on her face. So he’d left her to it a little.
Despite her assurances that she never needed anything, Mark was just heading out to the newsagent to buy a magazine for Alice, when he noticed someone step out of a red car.
‘Lynn, what are you doing here?’ asked Mark, shocked, yet pleased to see his sister standing in front of him.
He hadn’t recognised the car parked outside the block of apartments, as the last time they had spoken her car had been black. It was a reminder of how quickly time passes, and how quickly things can change.
They stood facing each other for a few seconds, before Mark threw his arms around his sister.
‘Maybe we ought to go inside.’ She smiled.
In his flat, Mark made coffee, and as they chatted she revealed the real reason for her visit.
‘It’s Mum,’ she said, cupping her coffee cup.
‘What about her?’ was all Mark could think to say.
‘She’s in hospital,’ Lynn told him.
Mark admonished himself for selfishly thinking that she had come to see him out of a genuine desire to do so. He had hardly done anything to rectify things between them, after all.
‘What happened?’ asked Mark, thinking that maybe his mother had suffered a fall.
‘She has recently been diagnosed with dementia,’ said Lynn, sighing deeply and placing her cup down onto a coffee table. ‘She was staying with me, but things are a bit difficult. Social services are looking for a suitable home for her to settle into as she appears to be getting worse.’
Mark wasn’t sure how he ought to react to the news. He felt a wave of regret as well as guilt that Lynn was shouldering the burden of caring for her.
‘Dementia?’ he said, quietly absorbing the news.
‘Yes. I suspected as such to be honest,’ said Lynn. ‘She had become very confused. When she started asking me when we were going to the shops, not long after we had returned home, I knew I couldn’t ignore things any longer,’ she explained. ‘Then a couple of days ago, she left the grill on that went up in flames, whilst I nipped out to pick Kyle up from college. Thank goodness for the smoke alarms you made sure we had fitted.’ She smiled.
Mark quietly digested the news. He recalled fitting the smoke alarm in his sister’s house, which all felt like such a long time ago.
‘She has deteriorated so rapidly these last couple of weeks. Sometimes she does not even seem to recognise me.’ Lynn stifled a sob.
‘That must be hard,’ said Mark softly.
‘It’s horrible. And I know you are not close, and this might sound wrong, but I just thought you might like to see her, before her memory disappears altogether, or before she—’ She broke off, her voice cracked with emotion.
Mark placed his own coffee down and pulled his sister into a hug and her tears flowed freely.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said when they pulled apart, and she dabbed at her eyes with a tissue.
‘Don’t be sorry,’ he comforted her. ‘I’m the one who should be sorry for not helping with Mum more. Sorry for not being there for you and Kyle.’
‘I’m guilty of that too. Not being there for you, I mean, especially after losing Di. We are a right pair, aren’t we?’ She wiped her mascara-streaked face with a fresh tissue from a box on the coffee table.
