So my father who is in his late 70s has needed physio recently for back issues and as his memory is declining I generally go to all his appointments with him. We have been to the physio twice and I text him regarding arranging appointments for my father etc. He charges big money for 45 min sessions (as all physiotherapists do) but just mentioning this to show he's highly paid.
The same physio who is local to me, I engaged 6 to 7 years ago for my toddler son (at the time) who had some motor delays. On the first appointment with my dad he remembered me and said 'oh I've been to your home blah blah for your son. To be honest i could only vaguely remember but i just said 'oh yeah nice to see you again'.
At that time 6/7 years ago, he did home visits and my husband remembered he came about 3 or 4 times to my home. I barely remembered. He left a foam (airex or something its called) exercise mat with us for my son to practice on. After around 3 sessions we discontinued, as my son, we realised, was too young to practice all the exercises and seemed to find the sessions an ordeal. He was later diagnosed as mildly autistic at 6, so it made sense then why the physio was not really working for him. The physio said ok and never asked for the mat back and we weren't using it by then and it was in our garage forgotten about. If he'd asked at the time, of course I'd have returned it.
Today while texting over my dads next appointment, he suddenly asked out of the blue 'Could he have his mat back that I took a few years ago'. I didn't recall the mat and asked my husband who generally remembers stuff better. He thought it bizarre to ask about it 7 years later, but vaguely remembered we had it in the garage.
Ultimately it seems the mat which was just a tatty foam thing, went into a skip around 3 years ago when we had builders in doing work in the garden. I apologised and said as it was so many years later we didn't know he wanted it back. Bare in mind both my father and myself paid him very well for all the sessions he did.
I told my sister and she said I need to reimburse him now for the mat but I don't think I have to since he never asked for it back for 7 years! At the time I thought it came with the sessions as he didn't say otherwise. I just think its a bit much to go chasing a tatty old mat, but his reply was very curt after I explained the mat was gone.
Would you just drop it or offer compensation? Am I right thinking it was unprofessional to ask at this stage?