6 minutes and 15 seconds

6 minutes and 15 seconds
At first I thought she was in the bathroom or asleep
and so I'd ring again
and in between would worry.
Of course the carers would phone me 
if there was anything seriously wrong, but...

but vascular dementia increases in steps
not necessarily visible to a stranger's eye
my mother's gone from occasional forgetting,
pills, lost glasses and walking stick
to "where do I go next?" 
between the bathroom and the lounge

6 minutes and 15 seconds
As I left the phone ring longer
worrying that now she'd lost the knowledge
of how to answer the phone
the way she did for her mobile 
(she who wore out 3 keypads in playing games)

6 minutes and 15 seconds
that's how long an unanswered phone will ring
before signalling its unavailability 
6 minutes and 15 seconds a time, 
all weekend, as I imagined that 
I'd lost her, lost her voice

Only to find, when the carers checked, 
that some wretch (not Mum, she couldn't reach)
had switched the phone off at the wall
Gwen had mentioned a new carer
with a mania for switching off 
- can she have imagined the cruelty of this?

LMC14Jun2015