My Mum

Ah Lottie. Be kind to your mum, that's what they say. She's the one who bore me, nobody will love me unconditionally, as she does. She's getting old, she's losing her faculties, I guess that's why you have kids. Where would she be, otherwise.

I look at her face and see an old lady, where a beautiful woman once was.

What will I do when I'm her age, no kids to look after me. Nobody to check, so often with a laugh and kindness, my failing ways. To love me unconditionally, as I do her.

Lucky I have patience. She just keeps talking like she has to make up for all the time she'll be alone. She hates being a widow. Get it out while there is someone to listen.

I drove her around to see where the new dentist is that she has to go to next week. Despite repeatedly asking her if she knew where it was, before we left, she didn't know the address when we got there. Just getting out of the house took half an hour. First she lost her sunglasses and then she lost the key and then she'd lost both, despite having them both in her basket.

She used to run circles around me, once.