Irene

 Irene

I was at work when I received an email from my mum which simply said in the subject line ‘Harold stammers’ and then in the body of the text ‘has died’.

Now, I did not get on with my mothers husband Harold, and so for her to send me an email telling me that he has died meant that it was important to her. so important that knowing that I did not get on with Harold she still chose to email me about it. and this indicated to me that she was in need of support.

I drove straight to Southampton from Peterborough immediately that day. That minute. Such was my rush and I got stuck with the lift being maintained that Gary made it to the bottom of the stairs before I did  on foot and he gave me his satnav from his car to make sure I made it to Southampton at all.

When I got there mum was on the phone with the Samaritans. she was at a very low point. So of course I had to stay. While I was at mums I tried to call her aunt Irene in order to tell Irene that tim had died. From my perspective I was calling Irene to share the good news that Tim had died. I rang Irene several times and I never once got through to her. I began to worry because Irene is 86 and lives alone since auntie Babs died.

But Irene lives in Kent in Dartford and mum is suicidal in Southampton. I cannot be in both places at once , I can’t leave mum and Kent is a long way from Southampton. so I became desperate to get someone to check on Irene. With no one to call I rang around every church in Dartford because I knew that Irene and Babs had been churchgoers. Everyone I reached, to my horror, would not check on Irene. these are meant to be Christians they are meant to be Sheppards for the sheep of the congregation. Yet not one of them will check on an old woman who lives alone who could not be checked on by her family and was not answering her phone. Eventually as part of my desperate search I came across the name and address of a local councillor in Dartford. And from the address I knew that they must be neighbours of Irenes although I was not sure how close. Still I rang the councillor in Dartford that had a similar address to my aunts and he did know Irene, and he didn’t know why she wasn’t answering her phone. Irene had gone into the hospital. Why no one contacted my mum who must’ve been her next of kin I cannot know. But now that we knew that Irene was in the hospital it was imperative that I now travel to Dartford to see her. And of course that is what I now did. I drove from Southampton via Sleaford to Dartford and I found Irene asleep and confused in the hospital. The hospital were very vague when I said that I was looking for Irene and what ward she was on. I was told that she would no longer be on that ward but in fact she was. and though I did not know this at the time, but thankfully I saw Irene just 48 hours before she died. and I would not have done if I had not found her, and I would not have found her if I had not rung, no matter how irrational that might seem to others, if I had not rung every church in Dartford I would not have found her and she would have died without my seeing her ever again.