Silence Is Broken

I just love the quiet, gentle light of December...

However, the day after this (and the reason for my comparatively silent journal), J and I were about to enter a few days which were distinctly unsilent.

We've been providing support for her dad (also J) who's been living alone now in his own home for several years, since her mum died. He's found it increasingly tough, and he's been gradually forgetting things more and more, and finding it difficult to express himself.

J has been magnificent, but the strain has been building more and more too. The last year has been particularly challenging and we'd both become more weary than we realised. Just thank goodness I stopped working at the hospital. Our daughters and partners have been fab.

This is the last time I'll ever mention his other immediate family.

He had been wandering out in the evening and landing up with neighbours, with him not knowing time, place or self. Said neighbours have been so lovely. We've had a private care company coming and providing support twice a day and we were about to set up an evening visit to try and settle him.

However, we got an urgent call the day following this blip from his GP, saying that social services had been alerted that J had been seen wandering in the road at 3 a.m. So from that point on, our feet didn't touch the ground. Assessments by GP and social worker who were so kind and patient.

J was found a place in an emergency care facility where we agreed to place him for his own safety. It was in a village about 15 miles outside York. OK, but we immediately knew we needed somewhere else.

The next few days were emotional (many tears by us all), busy, challenging and full of difficult decisions. We managed to shift him to a place nearer to us on the Monday evening which feels so good.

It won't be plain sailing and we know it'll take him (and us) some time to settle. You don't get to the position in your career where you run the whole of a police force's CID by being a meek and mild character!

I won't say much with my next few journal entries, just try (OK, I know, hard for me!) to let the images speak for themselves in the main.