My Lovely Mum

Dropped my old mum off at my niece's today so she can be taken to my sister's in Marsh Green for Christmas. As we drove into Angel Islington my mum pipes up with: "Where are we? Camberwell Green?"

No mum, we've just past Liverpool Road. If you cast your memory back nearly 60 years you might recall a very special event happening there.

Now my mum is quite deaf, so I have to speak very loud. So, I called out to her; "Do you remember now?" to which she replied: "Oh, lovely". Now when my mum says something like this we know she hasn't heard what was said.

However, about 3 minutes later she announced: "You know you were born quite near here, Seàn. The Royal Free Hospital it was called. It was closed years ago. There used to be a nice street market nearby. Is it still there?"

It's great that my mum at 93 is still possession of her health and memory. The deafness is a bit of a challenge; but she seems to have got used to it, and uses it as a convenient filter.