The Sewing Machine

In our blog  In the beginning my sister mentioned the background to our parents current circumstances and that Mum is a very talented seamstress and for years made many of her own clothes.

Since her illness she hasn’t done anything, not even her beloved cross stitch which used to be her passion. You can read more about her plans for the many cross stitch pictures she has done over the year in the blog Mum’s revenge.

We have been quite encouraged with Mum’s moods in the last two weeks. She has been persuaded by her doctor to take anti-depressants and despite our reservations, and hers, they do seem to be having a positive impact. She is definitely more chatty and less paranoid although the odd issue still pops up.

I was having a good conversation with her about her day when suddenly from nowhere she said. “Of course I need to go and buy a new sewing machine.”

I recalled she had started talking about the sewing machine shop when I saw her at the weekend but to be honest I had not paid much attention. So I asked why? Was she planning a project? What was wrong with her current sewing machine?sewing-machine

She said the sewing machine in the house was not her sewing machine.  It still looked like her machine and still sat in its unit in the dining room but someone had definitely taken her machine and replaced it with a different one which was broken.

This one, she said, had many issues, it didn’t fit the case correctly and she was afraid to pull it out in case it didn’t fit back in. The foot was broken and it just didn’t have the feel of her machine.

She had discussed all this with the man in the sewing machine shop. Goodness knows what he thought! He said he could take it off her hands and sell her a new one that would be hers but she had to get the old one to the shop and as the shop was on a pedestrian walkway she had no idea how she would get it there.

Of course, I made the mistake of questioning her about how the machine could possibly have been swapped without her knowledge and why anyone would want to do that. The usual very cross conversation resulted!

I must remember not to do that… With Dementia, just listen, don’t agree but don’t challenge either… Remember, remember the doctor’s orders!

 

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