All I want for Xmas is my parents together again

His imminent transfer there was what the medics at the hospital and all the teams; physio, OT etc., had recommended, and led us to expect would now happen. So, while Dad’s re-location was getting ever-closer to the wire, what with holiday shut-down looming, we were heartened but the fact that our family’s Xmas present this year would be Mum and Dad reunited before the 25th.

That was until Thursday afternoon.

When, sadly, I learned that despite determined protestations to the contrary from the social services concerned, it would seem that important, end-phase-of-life transitions like Dad’s, are often ultimately decided not so much by the human and family needs which should be paramount here, but by the powers of protocol, legislation and ultimately, available funding.

So this weekend’s upsetting news is that Milton Keynes Placement Panel are not enabling Dad’s reunion with Mum at Ashby House any time soon, if at all. Which consequently means we are likely to be facing a Christmas, divided between hospital and care home, with almost three months on, still no certainty for Dad – for whom ‘hope’ is all important – and with the additional grim prospect of an unwanted, yet probable battle, against social services ahead of us.

There have already been plenty of tears before Xmas this year…….but I’m still hoping for a miracle. X.