DARK CORNERS

Having spent a the early hours of the morning either making sure Pa did not drown in the bath tub through falling asleep and the later hours feeding hot drinks to my poor afflicted son morning found me feeling rotten.
When at ten thirty Pa had still not upraised himself I boiled over like an over full kettle and let rip! Half an hour later Pa was seated at the breakfast table and pancakes were on the griddle,my son had helped me to set the table and at last we sat down to eat.

Feeling like a heartless bitch I cleared the table and set about the long list of things on the to do list,and here you will find the reason for my loss of temper.
For some time we have known that there was to be building work in the bathroom, and under the stairs not forgetting the installation of a stair lift. Since this will involve the moving and indeed the throwing out of a great deal of accumulated odds and ends(note that I do not say junk) and since we were told recently that the builders could start as soon as they wished I thought that it would be as well to have a clear field when they arrived.

To that end been attempting to engage the men of the family in helping me to empty the under stairs cupboard, the bathroom and a walk in wardrobe at the top of the stairs used by my son. Singularly unsuccessful in my efforts I became extremely worried,knowing that I would be unable to do the work my self in the time remaining,especially as Pa will shortly be going in to hospital which will mean that with visiting him at Charring Cross Hospital I shall have even less time to deal with matters at home.

Time has gone by and each time I have mentioned the need to tackle these essential tasks there has always been a good reason why no one was available to assist and we now have a situation whereby the work must be done,pretty much all at once instead of a little at a time as I had hoped and above all soon!

Like a hero my son rallied to the cause and ill as he was helped me to tackle the dreadful glory hole known euphemistically as his wardrobe,which contains a broken chest of drawers, a few hangers with clothes on them,a huge pile of togs on the floor and his “bug out kit”and oh yes I almost forgot,piles and piles of ancient magazines!

Guilt afflicted me as he ploughed manfully through the piles of stuff and trawled his way through endless odd socks and shirts creased beyond hope, I told myself that if he had agreed to help me six weeks ago when I first asked he would not now be having to do the job in a hurry while he was ill. Still I felt very bad about asking him to do it.

When at last the rubbish was removed in bin bags to the yard I was left wondering how the hell he had managed to get the door closed on such a mountain of clutter. While he had been attacking this horror I had emptied a good deal of the bathroom bits and pieces and give the room a good clean. Bedrooms were hoovered and steamed to lay the dust which was contributing greatly to both my sons discomfort and my own.

Taking an executive decision I decided that the under stairs hell hole will be tackled who;e Pa is ion hospital, this will mean that it will be done in much less time with him insisting upon examining every item and arguing over where or not to dump it. The brutal truth being that once the new down stair lavatory has been installed under the stairs there will no longer be any space for Pa;s tat pile, so out it goes. Out ,out ,out!!!!!

Feeling grubby and exhausted I washed my hair and took a bath before dinner which after a family vote was fish and chips. Inclined to cosset my poor boy after giving him such a hard time I made sure that he had hot drinks, cold drinks and lots of hugs for the remainder of the day.
Perhaps I am partly to blame for their attitude, I make allowances for Pa's health problems, I make allowances for my son's work pattern, his writing and his social life,every now and then I ask myself just who is ,making allowances for me?

My men folks are not bad nor even lazy ,they just do not seem to understand that there are certain times when I need a little help and that I need it now and not sometime in the dim and distant future,perhaps today’s débâcle will teach them that ,but I doubt it.