My nonagenarian father who is a cardiac patient is sorely missing his wife of 67 years. My mum’s passing came as a bolt from the blue for the entire family as she showed no symptoms of the devious Glioblastoforme tumour that was stealthily growing in her brain. And in all the years that they were married, my mother’s chief passion/ occupation was to run after my father and make sure he was comfortable. Even when she was unable to see, she served him his tea in bed and chopped his salad before every meal. It is no wonder then that he is having difficulty in adjusting to his new situation despite the fact that he is still getting his tea in the morning and his chopped salad thanks to the care given by my brother and his wife.

Yet a few weeks’ back, he developed a swelling in his legs which finally resulted in hospitalisation. It also meant getting an attendant as he needed help while walking .

The attendant we could get was an Ibrahim who only spoke Hindi and even though my dad has spoken Hindi all his working life , claimed that he couldn’t understand Ibrahim’s Hindi .

And one night dad complained that Ibrahim was yelling at him saying that he is a nuisance and should learn to behave himself . That same night he insisted that Ibrahim was reprimanding him for not taking his medication as advised and should be more responsible.

Naturally my sister in law questioned Ibrahim and it turned out that Ibrahim was on a long distance call to his family back home and was talking to his four year old son and pregnant wife !

Now this does seem too close for comfort or was it genuinely a misunderstanding in communication?

Ciao