It’s now 12 days till my Grandma’s 100th birthday. Earlier this year we weren’t sure there’d be a 100th to celebrate but here we are and plans are afoot. I popped down to the nursing home for a quick visit today mostly to say thank you for the card and money she’d sent me for my birthday, phone calls being too hard for her to manage now (her hearing is going). Mum had Grandma outside in the sunshine, one of the staff has managed to snaffle one of those special reclining chairs on wheels for her now that getting into the ordinary wheelchair is too difficult and it was lovely to see her out in the fresh air instead of stuck in her room.

She gets sleepy very easily now and with the added soporific of the warm sun it was a real effort for her to participate in conversation. Mostly she listens, and even that’s a struggle, I’m sure she misses more than she lets on. We talked about the kids and the rest of the extended family, my singing lessons, how wonderful nursing home staff who really care are, about being uninterested in celebrities and about the relative merits of online news, print newspapers and TV news.

I was going to get Mum to take a photo of me with Grandma but decided not to ask as I know Grandma doesn’t really like having cameras pointed at her all the time and she wasn’t feeling too great. I asked what she wanted for her birthday and she said “All my children’s love.” You’ve got that already Grandma, along with that of all your grandchildren and great grandchildren.