‘You said you needed help.’
‘I find the easiest of things difficult,’ Elaina admitted. The vulnerability wasn’t what Morgan was used to and it almost made her crumble to hear it in her mother’s voice. ‘And the doctors can’t fix me.’
‘Have they given you medication? To stop it progressing?’ Morgan turned her laptop away from her. Life had been so simple moments ago when she’d been in the depths of going through interview transcripts with experts and preparing to work on a freelance article about email marketing tips and what to avoid.
‘They have, but I’m… well, I’m scared.’
Morgan gulped. To hear her mother say those words was confronting, the honesty not something she’d grown up with. ‘I know, Mum.’
‘I’m scared to bend down, worried I’ll trip on the stairs, even picking the cat up isn’t without risk.’
She was panicking; Morgan could hear it in her voice.
‘Morgan, I don’t want to be a burden, but I don’t want to be put in a home and forgotten about.’
‘Who said anything about you leaving Forget-Me-Not Cottage?’ But she was right; if she wasn’t managing now, what would happen further down the line? Morgan looked over at Ronan. She thought about the job he’d landed in Edinburgh, the interview she’d already had for a job herself.
Elaina’s voice came out small. ‘I’m not coping. I have painkillers and medications but… well, I have to be really careful.’
‘So you don’t trip over or fall, is that what you mean?’
‘Well yes… but it’s simple things like opening a tin of baked beans for my lunch. My wrist… well, it could easily break again.’
‘It’s that bad?’ Morgan, her head resting on her hand, closed her eyes. This was far worse than she’d thought. How had her mum kept it hidden for so long?
‘I’m afraid it is.’
Morgan looked up and Ronan could tell something terrible was happening. She’d felt all the colour drain from her cheeks as the conversation continued. It didn’t bear thinking about, the way Elaina’s wrist, her hips, her spine, anything could fracture so easily and she’d lose her independence just like that. Morgan had heard of osteoporosis as the silent killer and rather than reading about it here and there, now it was staring her right in the face.
‘Mum, have you looked into getting some home help? Someone to come in and do daily tasks like cleaning and cooking, that sort of thing.’ She didn’t know enough about the condition to make many more recommendations.
‘It would be nice, but it would cost.’ Elaina had always been careful with money. She lived a basic life, very little in the way of luxuries bar the odd meal out and a fancy bubble bath as a treat. Other than that, Elaina had been content to live her life in the village she’d fallen in love with as soon as they moved there.
‘I’ll look into it for you.’
‘I’m worried I won’t be able to cope in my cottage, Morgan. What if… what if I can’t get up and down the stairs, what happens if I can’t even use the shower myself?’
‘Are you being careful getting in and out?’ The shower was at least free standing in the small bathroom alongside the bathtub. Squashed, but adequate.
‘I am.’
But she was terrified of something happening and nobody being there, Morgan could tell.
They spoke a while longer, Morgan taking the call into the bedroom. She just let Elaina share her worries, the fears she had, some of the pain she was in, although Morgan suspected she was still dialling down how bad that was. Her mum was fearful of having strangers come to her house too, citing some terrible stories she’d read of elderly people being robbed and having their most treasured possessions mysteriously go missing. Her mum was getting ahead of herself, but Morgan got it. The loss of independence was the thing she most feared out of everything, never mind the pain and the inconvenience and the change of routine she had.
‘What’s going on?’ Ronan asked, pouring her a glass of wine when she finally emerged from the bedroom.
She sat at the table and he rested a hand on her shoulder as she filled him in on what her mum had told her. ‘She’s scared, she’s on her own. I told her I’d do some digging, find out costs for someone to go in and cook, clean, do odd jobs. A carer, perhaps.’
Ronan sat down next to her. ‘Is she at that stage?’
‘I think she might well be. And if she’s not, soon she could be.’ Morgan’s voice shook and he pulled her close. When he let her go, she took his hand in hers. ‘She asked me to come home for a while until she can organise some help.’
‘Back to Little Woodville?’ He swigged his wine. ‘What about Edinburgh? We’re all set to move.’
‘I can’t just abandon her.’
‘But she’s not…’ he harrumphed and scraped a hand through blond hair that stuck up in a way it really shouldn’t.
