fan club

Mum clasped her hands and beamed at me, besotted, gasping "Oh... aren't you handsome!"

That's a nice start to a visit.

I'd brought my laptop and a movie chronicling the city of Liverpool over the past 60 years or so. I'm not sure whether Mum genuinely recognised anything. I had thought she might respond to the sequences onboard the "Overhead Railway" (nicknamed "the Dockers' Umbrella"), which is where she and my Father first met, but the only point where she made a comment was when there was a shot of the New Brighton Lido. I'm confident that this was only because I've given her photos of herself as a 20-something, posing at the same Lido.

Afterwards, when I set a slideshow of photos going, Mum was quick to recognise herself in most shots but didn't know either her Husband or Daughter. I find it requires a little tact to reintroduce one's Mother to one's Father. I do it in a matter-of-fact way, not registering the shock I still feel when Mum has forgotten him. It's clear that, until corrected, Mum is minded to consider ME her Husband.

I stayed overnight for the first time - there's a free guest suite which I found an oasis of calm. I'm going to start doing this in future, as it will allow me to spend longer with Mum instead of worrying about my return journey within a couple of hours of my arrival.

As I signed out at Reception the next morning, a lady with a Zimmer frame passed, screwed her hand forcefully into my behind and gave me a sailorly wink.

I've found my key fan base - 80 and female. I've been looking for love in ALL the wrong places, it seems...

fatter transferrence

As some of my readers have been kind enough to comment, I've managed to lose some weight since February (5-and-a-half stone, which is 34 Kg or just over 75 US pounds). I haven't talked about it in my posts because this blog is about Mum.

However, it's just occurred to me that something very strange is happening here. You see, as I've lost weight.... Mum has suddenly ballooned.

Now, while my weight loss took 4 months (see here for a picture of what I looked like before), Mum has piled a LOT on in just one month. I'm concerned. Of course, she's had a very big appetite since she arrived at the Care Home in December 2007 and I was grateful to see her fill out a little from the tiny skeletal bird I rescued that year, but she's been healthy-looking since, up to now. Suddenly, in the space of a month, it's almost like her face is drowning in a sea of flesh and I struggle to recognise her. Thankfully she is carefree.

Is this a sign that another prop has given way in her mind, that some autonomic system that regulated her weight is now lost to her? I know it's easy to join the dots to see how this has happened: Mum eats a lot of pudding and isn't getting any exercise. But why gain so suddenly? Why now?

Fantasy time again: did Mum take my fat away from me? Did she selflessly take it and store it on herself?

Did I have a "Mummy-tuck"?