Just spoken to me mum on the phone and...

[Amanda_George]

Yep, it's the pest ranting away yet again... sowwy!

I haven't seen my mum since the Summer of 2010 when we buried my father and went over to see her once after we got the pup. 

Haven't seen her since.

Neither of us have a driving license and Steve doesn't have a car so we're kinda stuck with just the phone and email.

My brother has both a driving license and a car and he's more than happy to take her to Wales for a 3 day holiday that they came back from yesterday.

Steve's just suggested me getting a taxi over there for a few days then getting a taxi back here but at about £100 (nope, that's not a typo, I really do mean one hundred pounds) one way and being left with literally pennies at the end of each month, I don't know where I'm supposed to be magicing £200 from!!

Like Steve said, the road works in both directions and my mum has been over here a few times before my father died and it's no problem at all to give him directions if he needs them to bring her over here occasionally but my brother isn't up for that for some reason, so screw him!

My mum is 74 now so she's not getting any younger and she's got diabetes that she's struggling to keep under control with pretty much no help from her GP other than telling her she needs to lose weight.

I just haven't put my arms around her for almost exactly (as in to the month) 8 years and I miss her!

:sAngsoapbox:

[Pip]

I do understand as money was tight for us for a long time before my mum died and she had had ill health for all of her life.  On top of that I had a falling out with my family a few years which didn't help but it was still tough.  I had so many complex feelings but I still wish I could have seen her before she died.

Whilst my instinct is to say go visit your mum the practical side understands that it's not that easy, sending hugs   

[Amanda_George]

Thank you Pip.  I understand that diabetes is hard to control at the best of times but her GP is the best of a bad bunch at her surgery and because she's so far out in the countryside she hasn't got access to any other GP.  If she moved over here then she'd have not only a choice of GP but a choice of at least 2 surgeries as well as us being literally behind a big hospital that she could go to for medical treatment if she ever needed to.

I said to her a couple of years ago about moving over here but she said she wanted to get the garden sorted first... she could sell the house to my brother to keep it in the family like it has been for multiple generations then get her own little house within walking distance of us, the centre of Gloucester within walking distance and Cheltenham a 15 minute bus ride away with buses every 10 minutes instead of 3 a week that she's currently got right now!

I just miss her is all   ::