It’s the end of the day…
…and I feel dog tired.
I am nearly half way into my three week working trip here and we are struggling. Besides the huge amount of housework needed to keep this house ticking over, we have now had to focus on paperwork as well.
We discovered that our former housekeeper had many different bank accounts and now that she is a care home in a mentally incapacitated state, we wonder how to access the money which can go towards her care.
Well, that is if there is any money left. There are incomplete bank statements, the odd paying-in and withdrawal slip, various pieces of correspondence. Putting together a picture, I suspect someone has had fraudulent access to her money (she was always prey to scams as she loved gambling).
Then there are her medical notes from previous years, from three hospitals, which have been kept all over the place. The care home needs to know for how long she has had certain medication.
I also realise that there really is no record of what medication my disabled sister takes twice a day. It’s just been left to KL Sister to dispense it daily. There are hundreds of blister packs of pills in three boxes, upstairs and downstairs. No wonder she is overwhelmed.
I have saved the ‘best’ file for last. These are my father’s medical notes, going back two years from the time he started having health issues. Sadly there is no doctor in my immediate family. There is a lawyer, an economist and a music teacher. My parents would have loved having one doctor at least but having read the surgery notes and worse, looked at the pictures, I can definitely say that the doctor would not have been me.
The sorting and filing is a constant, in between strategic thinking meetings over cups of tea with KL Sister. We discuss full-time vs part-time maid, part-time maid vs part-time nurse, types of pill dispensing containers, radio vs CDs for sounds to keep our disabled sister company, never leaving things too late (the spot-on timing of the housekeeper’s admission to the care home: in one week her condition has gone downhill to such an extent that she now requires nappies and for her food to be pureed).
I admire our little pooches which keep me company when I work. They think I am a soft touch because they can always fish some small snacks from me if they catch my eye.
I keep my eye on the work, of course, because not to do so would mean sinking deeper into the mire. If there’s anything I hope to achieve whilst I am here, it it to establish a filing system that can be accessed and easily understood by everyone in the family.
But for now, it’s time to join the resident pets for bedtime. Goodnight KL…Gochugaru Girl has left the building.
