Just back from my Aunt's. She is around 85 years old. She is getting very forgetful.
Anyway, the hallway was soaked as the upstairs toilet has leaked. At least I think it is the toilet. Also the kitchen light was out. She hadn't even put a bucket to catch the drips!
She can be very frustrating as she is never in when people come around. She is a bit deaf and spends a lot of her time feeding birds and other people's cats so would be outside when people call.
My sister in law had facebooked the plumber (I had also rang him). Later on , I hear from my brother that he came round TWICE but no answer. This could be partly because her bell is on the outside door. There are two doors. Not many people see it.
I went into nag mode(useless, I know) to say that the electrician lady would be around Monday so please stay in. Nope she went out shopping (when not in the garden she is out shopping!). She has enough food in to feed an army so does not need to go out so much (I know she gets lonely and like other old people likes to get to the shops on a regular basis). I also suggested she fed the birds/cats /whatever, before she came. Of course she didn't. Anyway, the electrician did come and I managed to get hold of my aunt.
She has always been a bit 'odd', not a people person or family minded at all. She and my mum were often at logger heads and I would have to keep the peace.
It wasn't until I got home that I was thinking it over. I will have to be more sympathtic to her. She has always been self reliant and finds it hard "I used to be able to.....". I feel sad for her and cross that I have been rather intolerant and not very patient.
My and my brother and his wife were talking about the way forward. I feel she is already unsafe i her own home , I found a heater with stuff melted on it. She wondered "What someone had done to it!!" She lives alone. My Brother and his wife cannot get in to see her because if she is in, she keeps a key in the door and if she is in, is feeding animals, on the loo (she takes hours) or does not hear the bell, so it wouldn't be them and I tend to open windows to let some air in the place so she is the only one that would use it (when her heating was off).
She does not have a proper over but has a table top cooker. You have to stand on a step to peer into the pans!
I know she won't be happy in a home, even a warden assisted flat. She doesn't like being with other people (they talk too much). However I feel we shall have to do something very soon.
This is the woman who got suckered into loads of scams. She would have been very comfortably off otherwise. The phone calls from dodgy pill companies have got less as it had finally dawned on her that it was taking up all her money. I told her, the bank manager told her, the fraud squad told her, Age Uk told her.....