I had an unusual morning – I went to the
National Coal Mining museum with Spice where I spent over an hour 140 metres
below ground, finding out what life was like for miners, both recently and in
Victorian times. Going down in that cage was scary and I almost thought, I don’t
want to do this, let me out, but once we were down, my anxiety went.
As we took the tour, I kept thinking how
dreadful it must have been, years ago, when even children worked, in the pitch
darkness, for twelve hours, six days a week. They went to work while it was
dark, came home again when it was dark, and only saw daylight, never mind
sunshine, on Sundays. I honestly don’t know how they survived. I was really thought
provoking. I can’t imagine any British person putting up with anything a tenth
as bad as that nowadays.
I’ve been doing a lot of research over the
past few days about care homes, financial assessments and other exciting things
like that so that I have an idea what I’m talking about when the man from Devon
County Council gets back to me tomorrow. The problem is there don’t seem to be
any definite answers to questions. I suppose f the law and rules and
regulations were easy to understand and black and white, we wouldn’t need the
legal system. I tried some of the ‘free legal advice’ sites but when it came
down to actually getting anywhere, they all wanted money. Result, I have no
real idea where I stand only that I need to explore the various options and
possibilities before handing over so much money for the fees.
I now have a lot of notes that I need to
type up. Does that count as writing??? No, not really, but it will have to do.
Tomorrow, fingers crossed, a man is coming to fix my bath, then the gardening lady is bringing her dogs round so I can decide whether to look after them for her when she goes away, plus I'm expecting to speak to that man from the Council. If anyone has any spare good vibes, please send a few my way.
Good vibes sent your way, Linda!
ReplyDeleteYou probably found all this - and it's certainly not simple - but there is a good AgeUK fact sheet on care home fees at I went through all this when my dad went into a home before he died. We had a battle but in the end the local authority gave him what he needed and was entitled to - once we'd worked out what that was! Although it must be even harder after the event and given your circumstances, it can be done, so good luck.
Link didn't come out in the above post - hope it does this time!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ageuk.org.uk/Documents/EN-GB/Factsheets/FS10%20Paying%20for%20permanent%20residential%20care%20April%202010%20-%20AM064_fcs.pdf?dtrk=true
Or you can go to the AgeUk site and follow the links.