And now a quick Catch Up.

So…after Mum passed away on the 19th of December there was a lot to sort out, especially informing family and friends of her passing by phone and email and letter. There was the funeral to arrange too and with the proximity to Christmas that had to wait until the beginning of January.

Will and I went away for Christmas for a few days in Whitby. (I’ll post more on that later.) We returned to Mum’s and began to slowly sort through the house. One of the biggest jobs was copying family photos and slides so that my brothers and sister had copies. Will did most of that.

The funeral was on the 5th January, a cold, frosty day Mum. was buried with Dad in Wetheral.

After the funeral we continued to sort the house and arrange probate.

Will and I moved back to my house in Penrith as we started to clear Mum’s house.

We took some time off in February and had a week in Cornwall and Devon. (I’ll post more on that later).

We decided to go ahead and book flights back to Australia for the 16th March even before we knew if we could get everything with the house sorted in time but we just felt we had done enough and wanted to get back.

As it turned out we did get the house pretty much emptied before we left. We took an antique oak settle and the dining table and chairs down to Josh’s in London. Other bits and pieces were taken by my brothers and sister and quite a bit of furniture was donated to the British Heart Foundation.

As the 16th of March approached the war in Iran started and in the end our flight was delayed three times as we were flying with Emirates through Dubai. We eventually left on the Wednesday 18th but from Dubai had to fly to Brisbane via Sydney arriving in Australia on the morning of the 20th March.

I had been out of the country since December 2024 and Will had been in the UK since the end February 2025.

It was good to be back though I will miss seeing my family as much as I have been able to this last year.

We’re Back!

So…today we have been back in Australia for one week. It has been a busy week of cleaning and tidying and getting the house and garden back to some semblance of order. There is still a lot of work to do which will keep us busy for some time to come. The house has stood up quite well to being left vacant for over a year apart from a few weekends when helpful visitors came and kept an eye on things for us. However the possums have been busy taking over and we have at least three in the roof now and they have to be dealt with very soon.

I have been back at work for one day and Will is not returning to the baby cheeses. He now has a job as a Grounds and Maintenance officer at a local school. I have increased my work hours from 9.5 hours a fortnight to 18 hours a fortnight and Will will be working 15 hours a week.

I will endeavour to post more frequently as our life returns to normal but do intend to back track and post things that happened while we were back in the UK.

The Possums are coming!

So…I have been otherwise occupied of late and have sadly neglected to keep you updated but we are returning to a land Down Under on the 16th of March and I will post catch ups and possums once we get back home.

Sad Times.

So…my Mum passed away on the 19th of December. My sister, youngest brother, Will and I were with her when she left us. She was in palliative care so was heavily sedated but happily she died at home which is what she and I always wanted. We will miss her terribly, but it is some relief that she was ready to go, not afraid to go and is now at peace.

It is not the best time of year, well, when is it ever really, to lose a parent. The last few days have been a blur making funeral arrangements and notifying people. Will and I are getting away for Christmas, to walk by the sea and hopefully clear our heads a bit. We hope you have a great Christmas and all the best for the New Year.

This year’s epistle will be delayed for awhile.

Margaret Allen

28th September 1935 - 19th December 2025

Hard Times.

So…as of the 1st December this year I have been here 1 year caring for Mum. Will came out at the end of February to help out and thank goodness he did because there is no way I could have coped otherwise.

We have had a difficult few weeks recently. Mum started to be a bit uncomfortable, complaining of an ache in her back but it got slowly worse and ended up with an awful day for Mum and my sister, who was up giving us a break. Mum was suddenly in agony and it being a Saturday it was not the best time to get a doctor out. My sister rang for an ambulance but they did not deem it priority so said they wouldn’t be sending one. A doctor said he would come when he could. It took 6 hours for him to get there and he said she needed to go to hospital for a scan but that the ambulance might take up to 2 hours to get there. It took 5! From when my sister rang for help initially it took 12 hours to get Mum to hospital.

She had the scan and it turned out she had a compression fracture of the lower spine. We couldn’t understand how it had happened. Mum had had no falls this last year. It turns out it can happen in the elderly just from sitting as their bones are old and weaker. The scan showed that she had had a previous fracture that had healed. Mum had suffered some back pain a few years ago for a while, so it could have been then but no one discovered that then.

Mum was admitted to hospital and so began the efforts to try and deal with her pain. They started with intravenous morphine but Mum nearly overdosed and they had to give her something to counteract that. The pain came and went but when it came it was awful and Mum would be screaming in agony. On one visit we were there 3 and a half hours with Mum in pain. I caused a scene while the nurses were doing their change over meetings by wading in and shouting “My Mum is in pain. Can somebody please help her! What would you do if it were your Mum!”

I thought I was going to be restrained and marched out but they gave her paracetemol….no effect. They gave her Codeine….no effect and finally they gave her oxycodone, an oral morphine based drug and that has helped. That is what she is still on now.

Mum was in two wards in the hospital, the first was the acute ward then she was moved to a quieter ward but just as depressing. Visiting her was stressful as we didn’t know what we were going to find when we got there, praying that we would find her comfortable and not in pain. There was another lovely old lady in the same room who was continually praying to die. There had been times too when Mum had wished the same.

From the hospital they moved Mum to a residential care home for interim rehab before coming back home. There she had her own ensuite room but we would go and find her asleep in a chair. She was in 4 days and I spoke to an OT and said she could be sitting in a chair at home rather than here. They agreed.

She came home yesterday.

I rang the carers who have been coming daily for personal care in the morning to say Mum was coming home and was told that she had been ‘terminated’ as she had been in hospital for more than two weeks. It turns out they don’t even have to inform you that they are terminating their service either. I have had to phone social services and arrange new care which thankfully starts tomorrow.

So that is what has been keeping us busy since I was last able to post anything and no doubt will keep us busy in the days to come. I have some pictures of a trip to London and another to Glasgow to post when I get a chance.