We had not planned to visit Poland again
this year in the depths of winter but Anita’s mother had a small heart attack
and was taken to hospital. Anita’s daughters took much time out from Krakow
to
take turns to be with Grandmother. It
was four weeks before she was allowed home before Christmas. The girls and
partners spent quality time with Grandmother including 24 hour bed care at home,
whilst Anita’s sister in Poland did not want to get her hands dirty. The girls
called upon Anita, a former nurse for medical and caring guidance as necessary.
Just after Christmas mother
developed a fever and high temperature which weakened her and she died just
days before Anita’s flight to take over the 24 hour caring for the month of
January.
Anita and daughters were there for
the funeral with many relatives coming from near and far. The sister in Poland
came but by now her grabbing money attitude had already created a rift in the
family. Sadly this is common and we keep meeting people whose families were
broker by greed of one or more family members.
It was lovely for Anita to meet
again with cousins etc.
I joined her a few days later as I
had been busy in Spain and Portugal. We returned to the flat of mother and worked
hard to go through her things, giving some to Charity, others to the bin, and
keeping a few small things like photos. We were traveling with backpacks, not a
van.
More family stress as the other
sister, now living as an illegal alien in USA was claiming that everything is
hers and we should not even be in the flat. She and her friend solicitor were
both aggressive and abusive. Going through mother’s things would otherwise be a
meditation and journey of memories, but the two toxic sisters made life most
unpleasant. I should add the mother knew both were after her money and had
taken steps so that they would not get more but court challenges are in the
pipeline. Neither spoke with mother when they knew she was close to the end.
The one in USA had not spoken since an abusive phone call about 18 months
before when mother took her off the account which she had been using when she
stayed with mother until December 2016 for a few years.
The toxic sisters don’t speak with
each other either.
Once we knew that our visit was not
for 24 hour care we thought that we might be able to relax away for a few days,
perhaps Polish mountains, Lviv (Ukraine) or Budapest (Hungary), but there was
too much to do and that did not happen. Instead we took one night at a hotel
with sauna,
and at the end we went with daughters to the cinema,
and met Peter,
our friend for a couple of hours at Chimera restaurant in Krakow.
We also
called in at the hospital where Anita used to work and many friends were there
to welcome her.
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