We went to visit Micky today, as we do rather less frequently than we probably ought. She had just come out of a spell in hospital with a chest infection, that should have been one week but turned into two due to complications of getting an extra NHS-type carer for her, to visit sometimes. Luckily for us M+J handle most of this stuff, and indeed they had been to visit yesterday.
We found her ostensibly fairly well, except for a rather nasty-sounding cough that was presumably a hangover of her chest infection. We had the usual format of visit: come in, talk for a bit; have lunch; play a round of scrabble until Micky grows tired and/or sleepy; and go.
Here's a photo from just after lunch, with the afternoon light streaming in from the window. Later, Miranda and I sat looking out at the Jewish folk going about their Sabbath business, comparing hat types. I was amused to see that from above the shtreimel is hollow inside.
Alas, Micky was only superficially well. Her hearing appeared weaker, it was hard to hear what she said, and... Well: we tried a game of Scrabble but never really got started. Later, Miriam tried her on just the basics: recognising letters. Micky could do some, but not all. We tried a jigsaw - one made with Escher pieces, perhaps not the wisest of choicest no matter how interesting the shapes might be. But, she would pick up the pieces and not seem to distinguish front from back. In conversation, more than ever before, she would apparently lose the thread and start random new topics.