I’m in the U.K. My parents are somewhere rural, in the EU. Mum is mid 70’s, Dad early 80’s.
They’re both very independent, sociable people, and are very hardy. I’ve broached the subject a few times about how they will care for themselves, if they become ill. I’ve tried to convince them to pull up the drawbridge for a while. Get a wee stockpile in. They won’t be told what to do, ever!
Mother “That virus won’t make its way all the way out here- we can’t even get broadband”
Father, shouting out in the background “or av-o-ca-dos, or lamb stock cubes!” Mysterious foods that they have experienced in my house in the U.K.
Me “At least get some paracetamol in”
Mother “Why, what does that do?”
Me “ Do you ever take pain killers? Do you even have a first aid kit?
Mother “Of course we do, we have plasters and iodine”.
Father, shouting in the background “Don’t worry about us, nuisances never die young!”
They think it’s all a fuss about nothing. They have never been sick. They refuse to engage with it. My sister says I should leave them be, that they’ll live their life the way they want to. She says I “need to find my peace with it”.
I kind of agree, but I don’t want to regret trying harder, if it turns out that I never see them again. Odd times x