Barbara was here for two hours helping me with forms.
She is the manager, and it showed.
A small fair haired 60 something lady carrying a huge case and two mobile phones, I took to her immediately.

So after an initial very English conversation about the weather, old age and caring we got down to the sticky business of applying for mum's attendance allowance.
Phone calls, several, brief chat with mum, a few, heart to heart with me, one big one.
She did her best to not only ease my anxiety about the whole blooming thing but also reassured me that although my life is a bit grotty I'm still an essential human being in my own right (her words not mine). That sealed it.
I made more tea.

She did the pen work all I had to do was recount everything that has happened since November 2011.

Incredibly we kind of sailed through it, there were hitches and hiccups of course, i.e. inability to remember phone calls made, names and dates but other than that Barbara and I did ok.

Bottom line?
Because mum has a terminal illness she's likely to get an attendance allowance pretty damn quickly.
As for me, once mum's been cleared by whoever makes these decisions I should be entitled to a Carer's allowance.
A Blue Badge was also mentioned...

As I say Barbara was cool, did her job professionally and courteously and had a likeable sense of humour. We joked about: Getting on a bit, Menopausal shopping, coffins and cakes.

She left me.......... leaving behind a good impression of the NHS and McMillan services of which she is a top honcho. Mum however thought differently.

The sun had his hat on when Barbara left and so we said our bye byes and parted, I felt ok on the garden path then I went inside...

"They must be giving you thousands of pounds by how long you've been and how you're laughing"

Silence.
I went into the garden and stared at a weed.
It was beautiful.