I am sick to death of hearing folks whinging about their their mums, dads or grandparents dying alone in hospital or in a care home, while Boris Johnson was boogeying on down inside Number 10. These people need to take a hard look at themselves and take some personal responsibility.
Take Ann, who phoned BBC Radio 5 Live this week. Her father Len died in a care home. He had cancer. He died alone, in late October 2020. Ann blames Boris Johnson for this.
Did it occur to Ann I wonder, that a respiratory infection was the least of Len’s worries? Did she think to herself that as he was dying of cancer, her place was by his side? I mean, you’d want to spend as much time as you could with your mum or dad if they had late stage cancer right?
Ann’s story is one of hundreds I have heard this week. Dennis spoke to SKY News. His mother had dementia and died in a care home. Dennis hadn’t been to see her for 7 months. She was 86. Dennis obeyed the rules because he didn’t want to infect his mother.
She never got a say in it of course. Neither did Ann’s father. Nobody considered that seniors in care or in hospitals might choose love, companionship and hugs over isolation and abandonment.
I would’ve asked. I would’ve said, “Gran, they don’t want us coming round in case we pass on this virus, but I don’t want to leave you alone. I want to keep visiting. What do you think Gran?”
Of course, Gran would’ve told me to give her a hug and to come back the next day with a quarter of bullseye’s and a sneaky baby Jamesons.
Boris Johnson is, of course, a total shithouse. He’s a sceptic tank. He’s detestable, but don’t blame him for your old mum dying alone in a care home. He may have set the rules – he didn’t but that’s beside the point – but why did you obey them?
You can’t tell me that you didn’t know or suspect that it was wrong to abandon your relatives for months on end, relatives who had far more pressing health issues than covid?
For those who weren’t holding the hands of their loved ones as they died, the guilt must be overwhelming. It must be suffocating. It’s easier I suppose, to look for someone else to blame, rather than ask uncomfortable questions of yourself.
