What I discovered during a visit to a Co Tyrone care home |
‘Mrs Davison had a fall and broke her hip has been moved to a care home you have to help Genghis’ was the exact message Fionnuala sent me on WhatsApp.
Now, I like Mrs Davison, for all that I know her, and I know it’s usually wise to do as Genghis says, but I wondered how I ended up being volunteered.
Turns out Mrs Davison doesn’t have any relatives nearby and, being as delicate as I can, wouldn’t have that many people from her church in this particular part of Co Tyrone.
Just a bit of context for any new readers: Mrs Davison is Genghis’s neighbour, an elderly widow, and he is kinder to her than most people are to their own mothers. I have been summoned on a few occasions to help her out.
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Genghis, meanwhile, is my wife Fionnuala’s beloved uncle, real name Brian McCann, who is one of the most pig-headed, ignorant uillean pipers I have ever met: a fag-smoking, hard-drinking bachelor who thinks he’s Clint Eastwood.
I........