Forever Young

It’s been a very long day today. We left home at just after 8am, with the intention of arriving in Chester nice and early in order that we could take my sister to see mum and celebrate her 90th birthday.
Ah, the best laid plans and all that. Within two miles of leaving home, we were stuck on the Kendal bypass due to some sort of accident at the motorway junction. 45 minutes later and we were on the move again, but all chance of sticking to the original schedule was long gone.
After an earlier than planned lunch, Mrs C and I arrived at the hospital some three hours later than planned, having picked my sister up from her hospital on the way. I’m not sure mum was totally with it, but she did realise it was her birthday and she was pleased to receive her cards and presents. In fact, by the time we left she had worked her way through half the box of Thorntons chocolates!
Her sister (my aunt) also turned up and I knew my other sister and her husband were due in later. Mum told us that everybody on the ward had sung “Happy Birthday” to her that morning, so it seemed like she was having a reasonable birthday, despite being stuck in hospital.
Unfortunately, the journey home was now a lot later than planned and, as soon as we pulled on to the drive, I basically jumped out of one car and into the other as I had to head off back down the M6 for a Blackadder rehearsal in Lancaster!
Finally arrived home (again!) at 9pm, absolutely starving. Microwaved the first thing I could find in the fridge, wolfed it down and then headed for bed because I’ve got to do the whole journey all over again tomorrow. A review meeting at Clatterbridge, regarding my sister, which has been in the diary for some time. It was suggested that I could have left visiting my mum until tomorrow (thus only making the one trip) but I reckon you’re only 90 once so it was worth making the extra effort to get down there today as well.