Ideas to help my mum during self isolate

[Bbq1]

I am very close to my 79 year old mum and prior to lockdown would see her most days. We lost my lovely dad only 6 weeks ago after a long illness. Mum and dad were married for 59 years and were such a strong partnership. We are obviously still all grieving dad but mum has been very strong despite missing him so much and tried to stay positive as dad would have wanted. Unfortunately, with this lockdown coming so soon after losing my dad, it's not easy for my mum. She is abiding by advice self isolating as much as she can, but the loneliness is getting to her. I phone her twice daily at least for long chats but it's not the same. She does have activities she enjoys doing in the house but is fed up. I remind her this is temporary. I would appreciate any ideas if anyone can think of anything more I could do to help mum through this. Thank you in advance.

What terrible timing! The absolute last time you want to be all on your own is when you've just suffered a bereavement.

Can she manage Skype/zoom?

Is there any chance you could visit or anyone in the family (someone who is 100% self isolated)? Maybe just go and wave through the window even? Leave her something on the doorstep.

Does she like audio books, jigsaws, crosswords anything like that?

I know @Sam, it is such bad timing, we were planning theatre trips etc to give mum a new focus and spending lots of time with her when this hit. It really hurt to hear mum say she felt lonely today. Unfortunately, she isn't in any way tech savvy and isn't even online in any way though I wish she was. She likes various things like knitting, adult colouring books etc so I could maybe get some stuff together for her, like a gift basket? She enjoys reading but audio books are a good idea. Thank you.

I just sent my mum a jigsaw, that she received today as a surprise and she was delighted and started it straight away. Shes 82 and lives alone and 6 hours from me. Audio books also a good idea, I'll try that next

Could you both do things “together”?

If you both have a kindle, maybe both download the same book and aim to read a chapter or two a day so that you can chat about your thoughts on it.

If you both have a garden, maybe each select an area that needs a good weeding and then share before/after pictures.

If you’ve both got the ingredients, choose a cake/stew/soup/dish that you’d both like and share photos of the results and decide whether it was delicious or really blooming awful (I’m not a good cook!)

You both sound like you have a lovely relationship - and I’m very sorry about your dad and the fact that lockdown adds a whole different level to family support.

Are you able to see her at a distance? I'm getting my parents shopping as there are no delivery slots so when I drop it off at the door I'm going back 2-3 metres then having a chat.

We're only doing this once a week & the rest of the time talking on the phone & have just started using whatsapp. The face to face chat feels much better though.

Luckily my Mum & Dad have each other for company but Dad's not in very good health & sleeps a lot & Mum's definately missing seeing us all. She's doing a lot of knitting & gardening at the moment. She also likes doing puzzles.

I dropped a couple of magazines and a bunch of daffodils on my mum’s doorstep yesterday. I’ve got a couple of packets of seed that I’ll post to her in a few days. PP idea of a jigsaw is a great idea. I think a few things like that can break the monotony I really don’t know what will help the loneliness, except keeping up the phone calls.