Flower ......

...... Friday.

Tagging today is:   FlowerFriday8 ...... 

How quickly it seems to come around!

Props today include:  Black cloth background, a dining chair, natural light from window, tripod and camera with 18-105mm lens and a squirtle from a spray bottle to give that extra ....... well, extra water droplets!!!   This is one of the roses from my "welcome home from America" flowers from Himself - almost two weeks old and still doing well.

Yesterday's hunt for somewhere for Mum started well but finished badly.
As it's the first time we have done anything like this we didn't know the "right questions" ..... the first place we visited - fabulous - had the tour and the chat and a cuppa - brilliant.  Hearts were happy.  Went away to the second place, nowhere near as good (in fact - depending on which room was available - some even worse than not-so-good) but we did the tour, the chat and the cuppa - had lots of things explained and then the phrase "top-up fees" came up.  
It seems that, altho Mum is to be funded by the Lincolnshire County Council/Social Services there is an element called "third party top-up" which is our responsibility to pay ..... the not-so-good place want £125 ($185) a week from us - equating to £540/$800 monthly.  
After that shock we returned to the wonderful place to enquire about their top-up fees .... try £350/$520 per week on for size (equates to £1515/$2245 monthly).  I burst into tears.

How mean does it feel to measure your own Mum's happiness and well-being against financial constraints?  I can tell you, it feels like being kicked in the stomach by a mule!  And then kicked again and again.

We don't have a Plan B so it was on the phone all morning making enquiries - trying to balance what we can afford against what is the nicest and most appropriate place.   (For those that don't know Himself took early retirement as his health did not allow him to carry on with the job he has been doing for the past 47 years - so that income went - had he still been working we could have gone with the wonderful place - life stinks!).

Enough of my moaning ...... I hope I am in a better frame of mind in the morning but today I have been shouting at the TV and our "new" Prime Minister" - "what about bl**dy affordable healthcare for older people??"

~ Anni ~