More good news!

We went to see Dulcie late this afternoon after Will came home from work.She had been moved to another room and was in one of the four beds in the room. She had a bed by the window.She had had a busy day, visits from Wendi, Danny and his son Liam, phone calls from Shirley, Terry and Shelley one of her grand daughters. They had had her out of bed and she had sat in a chair for 2 hours and had even started reading one of the books we had taken for her. She hadn't read a book in years.She was in good spirits and had many lucid moments and was the Dulcie we knew and love, but these moments were punctuated by bizarre but brief weird ones.Her tea arrived while we there....roast lamb, a roast potato, pumpkin and peas and a sachet of mint sauce. It did look very much like hospital food. I noticed that the lady in the bed opposite Dulcie had some sort curry and her plate looked much nicer than Dulcie's but the woman ignored it, stuck her nose in a what looked very much like the nose bags they give to a horse...and she started retching. Then the woman in the bed next door to 'curry' woman also got out her nose bag and started retching in unison. Dulcie just kept on eating her lamb occasionally pointing at the blank  TV screen hanging form the ceiling and telling is what she could see moving on it.The nurse came and pulled the curtains round the vomiters."Such lovely tiles, aren't they Bill?" she said pointing at the ceiling tiles."I wish I had a nose like that woman," she said pointing her fork at the 'curry' woman's husband who was not hidden by the curtain.She ate everything! Her plate was clean. The woman in the bed next to Dulcie had the same thing."Anybody got any butter?" she said. I've got a bread roll and no butter."We've got butter," said the 'curry' woman's husband with the nose Dulcie wanted. "You can have the bread roll as well if you want" he said, accompanied by the sound of his wife retching.I passed the butter to the woman next to Dulcie. All the women in the room were younger than Dulcie but I guess there are not many that are older.A nurse brought her the phone. It was Iris.Dulcie rolled her eyes.It was my fault. I'd phoned Iris earlier in the day to let her know and she had been so pleased that I had."Oh, the poor blighter!" she'd said when I told her the story.Iris was good she didn't keep her talking for long which was good because she was trying to tell her where the hospital was and Iris was having difficulty hearing and Dulcie was getting louder and louder."It's near Aldi.......ALDI!.......IT'S NEAR ALDI, DEAR!........ALDI!!!"I took the phone back to the nurse station.Dulcie had pulled the oxygen tubes out of her nostrils and was sucking them.Will said "No, they need to stay in your nose.""They're giving me water, Dear," she said.We helped her drink some tea by using a straw.Then the nurse was back with the phone....another caller."She's popular!" said the woman in the next bed who'd had the 'curry' woman's butter passed over by her husband with the nose Dulcie wanted."Yes, " I said, "Well, when you get to 91, you've had time to make a lot of friends."This time Dulcie was not so with it and started off holding the phone but then slowly drew it away from her ear and down to her chest though all the while carrying on the conversation with the caller. Will grabbed it and held it back up to her ear.He wanted to go make some phone calls so I took over holding the phone and he went off out of the ward. With her hands now free, Dulcie grabbed the cup of hot tea with the straw in and clutched it by her chin. I held the phone with one hand and grasped the cup with the other to (a) stop her from spilling it and (b) try to keep the straw out of her eye.I was pleased when the call was over and I could just concentrate on the cup."They all seem to be women in here," said Dulcie."Yes, they are", I said."Is that a woman? I can't see," she said in a very loud stage whisper, nodding her head towards 'butter' woman."Yes," I mouthed."I think she's a man," said Dulcie, again, in the loud stage whisper."No," I mouthed, "It's a woman.""She's not a man?" she whispered loudly."No, it's a woman." I mouthed."Oh," said Dulcie, "I thought it was a man."Will came back and it was time for us to leave her to rest."There's something crawling up that wall." she said.....There wasn't.We said we would see her tomorrow.She wished us a lovely evening.For a 91 year old who had a three and a half hour hip operation....she's doing pretty well.It's good news.