We took in an old woman, almost a stranger a distant relative at best. Not only was she practically a stranger, she was also blind and, if Im honest, not quite of sound mind. It was a daring, perhaps reckless, act, but we did it.
We lived in a small village in the Yorkshire Dales, a modest place. Money was tight; we had three children, and my son already had two grandsons. A big family, simple, rougharoundtheedges folk, not highly educated but decent enough to feel a duty. We didnt dump her in a home or leave her alone at night; she lived on the far side of the village, far enough that she could no longer look after herself. So we took her in.
We brought her in, gave her clean clothes, tied a fresh kerchief around her head as was proper, fed her a spoonful of soup and settled her on the bed. We hung a rug with deer on the wall, even though she could not see it. Life went on: we ate cabbage soup, porridge, even instant noodles, and tea with sugar. We helped her to the loo, changed her when needed, and listened to the thin, rambling mutterings she kept spouting.
One evening, Mildredwhat we called hercroaked out, Someones gotten into the shed! We rushed over and found the drunken neighbour pilfering potatoes and cabbage. What a coincidence! A while later she warned, Dont let Ritchie go into town. The car will crash. Trusting the harmless old fool, we kept my son Ritchie and his friend from the bus. The friends car did indeed smash badly, and Ritchie would have been dead had he been in it.
That was the sort of thing she kept saying, though she could barely lift a spoon to her mouth, could not remember, see, or make sense of anything. Then she started begging for a lottery ticket. My father went into the big market town, bought a ticket, and, would you believe it, we won a small fortunesomewhere around three or four hundred thousand pounds, maybe five, but the simple folk around us just say a lot.
We bought Mildred a new dressing gown, a tin of ginger biscuits, a beautiful blanket, and plenty of other comforts. She may not see with her eyes, but she sees something else, and we made sure everything around her was pretty. Everyone loved her.
She still drifts in and out of nonsense, forgets things, cant feed herself or reach the bathroom, yet she smiles warmly. She sits on the lovely blanket in a clean gown and a tidy scarf, looking like a little doll, beads clacking in her hands as she whispers something gentle in that thin voice, nodding her head as if approving everything around her.
