It's Maureen's birthday today. Found a bit of time in which to think of my sister when she young, full of promise, and radiant in her way. And remembered how she took care of me when I was just a nipper - at one point taking me to and from school everyday. St Mary's RC School, Denton that was, and she must have been only eleven or twelve and me a five-year-old. I think I might have been quite a handful, especially in those weeks, one in two, when Mum was working shifts and wasn't around when we got home - to my intense disappointment.
Also remembering the care Maureen took of her own girls, and realising how much of her twenties she must have lost to them, though with complete acceptance & grace in her role as a great mum. Better than our own, to be honest, in many ways. Funny to think that we never argued at all as brother & sister, partly because we just accepted we needed to get on with making family life work. Which we did.
Sad to think of Maureen's reduced condition, with the dementia making her incapable of recognising me now - though aware when I was with her back in December that this odd guy was somehow the brother who's now a little 'clever' boy to her. But happy that she's found, at least for the momentary present, some equilibrium and peace having buried two husbands as she told us with relish, more than once. Not really remembering either of them, as far as we can tell.
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