“I’m surprised that he would treat you of all people like that.”
No one was more surprised than me.
“People change.” I shrugged. “Nine years is a long time.”
Michael nodded in agreement. We both looked to Mum as she began to stir from her evening nap. Both Michael and I helped her to sit upright. She began coughing violently so I grabbed her handkerchief and placed it in her hand so she could press it to her mouth. Her breathing sounded horrible even when she calmed down and stopped coughing. I knew from speaking to Michael that her lungs weren’t improving and her pneumonia was worsening. Like me, mum suffered from asthma, hers just wasn’t as bad as mine, but right now even her mild asthma was dangerous when paired with pneumonia.
“You’re okay, Mum.”
She rested her head back against her pillow and cleared her throat.
“Enda, when did . . . you get here?”
Stupidly, I looked over my shoulder to see if Enda was behind me, but I quickly realised that Mum was speaking to me. She was terribly confused more often than not and she always mistook me for someone else. It was a kick in the teeth each time she didn’t know who I was.
“Not long ago,” I answered. “How’re you feeling?”
“I’m fine.” She waved her hand, her voice sounded husky. “How is M-Molly?”
Molly was Enda’s West Highland Terrier who died four years ago.
“She’s great,” I assured her. “She just got groomed so she’s looking all pretty.”
“Good, good,” Mum sighed.
She looked exhausted, which was upsetting because all she seemed to do was rest. Michael reached over and gently took her hand in his. Mum glanced at him and her face lit up.
“Malcom,” she beamed, squeezing his hand. “I didn’t hear . . . you come in.”
My face dropped, but Michael kept his composure when my mum called him by my father’s name.
“I wanted to surprise you,” Michael winked. “I missed ye today.”
Mum chuckled to herself. “You say that a-all of the time.”
“Because I always miss ye, gorgeous.”
Even though she was wheezing and out of breath, she was giggling like a schoolgirl and it made my heart feel a little lighter. I knew Michael, like me, had his feelings hurt whenever Mum called us by someone else’s name, but it had to be worse for Michael. Mum rarely recognised him and she often called him by my father’s name. My stepfather took it in his stride and never showed he was upset, but I could see it in his eyes. He only found my mum a little over nine years ago and the time he had spent with her was when she was slowly losing herself. The man was a gentleman. Most men would have run for the hills, but not Michael, he stood by my mum and married her.
He loved her desperately and it broke my heart that when she was gone, his heart would be gone with her.
“The big black dog stole my b-best wool earlier,” Mum rasped, looking back at me. “When I find the owner . . . I’m calling the police.”
“I don’t blame you one bit,” I said, going along with her story. “That dog is causing too much trouble, he’s been stealing everyone’s best wool.”
“Yeah,” Mum nodded. “It’s a disgrace how this c-country let’s him get away . . . with it.”
“I’ve a good mind to write a letter to the Prime Minister about it.”
“I have his number,” Mum informed me. “I’ll set up a dinner date. We can talk about . . . him fixing the shower head. It’s always dripping, I can’t s-sleep over it.”
Michael chuckled under his breath and even I had to hide a smile. When Mum was talking in circles like this and we went along with it, none of us ever really knew how the story would end. We were surprised, more often than not, at the outcome, just like now and myself and Michael always tried to find the humour in it. If we didn’t, every evening with Mum would just be depressing and hard to get through.
There were no official visiting hours in the hospice, but the staff began to get the patients ready to settle in for the night from eight onwards. It was just after nine and my eyes began to feel heavy. I had worked a double shift at work. I opened with Joe and Deena at seven and didn’t clock out until half six in the evening. I then came straight to the hospital to spend time with Mum and Michael. My body wanted nothing more than to sleep.
“Frankie,” Michael said. “Get on home, honey. You’re exhausted.”
I didn’t put up much of a fight. I hugged and kissed Michael goodbye, then did the same to Mum, careful not to wake her because she had just fallen asleep after having a pretty horrible episode with coughing. The nurse placed an oxygen mask on her face to help her breathe easier and it helped as she fell asleep.