There was an article in the Sunday Independent newspaper apparently today (talked about on the radio) describing how residents in nursing homes who were continent became incontinent because there were no carers who would bring them to the toilet when they needed to be brought. That fits in with our experience of the use of medication to regulate bowl movements of persons in care so that they fit into the time table of homes and the turns of the carers.

It beggars believe, but this is how institutions work: the military, convents, prisons, nursing homes and hospitals. Even home care. People in these institutions and dependent on that care have to adapt to the rules and procedures and routines of the institutions and the carers.

It beggars believe.

We had a brilliant Sunday today. Slept in. Late breakfast. Kaffeetrinken beside the sea. Early dinner. A short movie. Early night. The way we wanted it. It’s hard to believe that something as ‘normal’ as this is not a given for all, and wasn’t for Pádraig, for a long time in his life…