We have asked ourselves this question on numerous occasions but there are no easy answers. Given the same set of circumstances we would have made the same decision even with the value of hindsight. We don’t always help ourselves either. It always seems too much to organise some time out with our charge and as for my mother, any happening is a big event that has to be carefully planned for and of course, dressed up for! This can involve getting up at the crack of dawn in order to be ready in time so any spontaneity is firmly out the window. She is remarkably physically fit for her age but is mentally quite different. Being deaf doesn’t help, nor does the blindness caused by ARMD and we frequently make up stories about people and situations that are often just plain wrong. Her main hobbies after retirement were crossword puzzles and reading now the former are almost impossible and reading involves a series of magnifiers and the largest type on her Kindle. This means reading a long sentence is difficult and my mother often loses the thread of the story ending up with a different result at the conclusion. It certainly makes books cheap as they can be read several times over!
Shrinking Horizons 