1. Ten years ago I created the #Shellbombelle character to say outrageous things on a public forum. I was an obese shut in who was distraught from daily visits to a hospital where my Mother Siobhan's Alzheimers had progressed to admission following a TIA at the kitchen table. - 
2. We thought she'd be home that afternoon as she recovered almost immediately, spoke, had no facial abnormality, was walking and ate a meal using cutlery. It was advised to admit her for one night for obsv. I brought up an overnight bag with her Vera Wang pyjamas(a gift) and her
3. perfume. I advised my Father to relax and chill and get a good kip as I knew he was stressed by the #sundowning - a stage of dementia where circadian rhythms are upset and the person leaves the house after dark, usually to shop or go to mass, installed habits if you will. The
5. We then had to deal with the paperwork and VHI with a man that was grieving. The situation was awful and impacted on Siobhan so much she closed her eyes as her bed was wheeled into a 4 bedded semi private ward with a view of her sisters garden. And kept them shut. Siobhan had
6. cared for her Father with Dementia and then years later her oldest sister "The Long One" as she faded away on an air mattress. To see her in the same situation was unbearable. She obviously didn't want to see what was happening in the ward as her eyes remained closed. My Da
7. shaved and wore a fresh shirt with a suit and tie every day bringing flowers and ice cream and when he could get no reaction befriended every one else in the ward. Hospitals are the front line of humanity. And so we witnessed all manner of horror and beauty. The more I saw the
8. fatter I got, as if I was absorbing all the pain like layers. I became hilarious and was the life and soul of the corner of the ward where we micro nursed being adept at crushing meds with a spoon. Mam was sedated and tagged. The following 8 years were documented in the book
9. I wrote about it called #Scourged
A ref both to my childhood nickname and the illness. I was dragged out from behind the laptop to "perform" and the feedback was unreal as the sound of the material from the author was funnier than the words. The sound of the play #TheScourge
A ref both to my childhood nickname and the illness. I was dragged out from behind the laptop to "perform" and the feedback was unreal as the sound of the material from the author was funnier than the words. The sound of the play #TheScourge
10. is sadder than the words. I will be onstage in #NewYork performing this play on the 5th Anniversary of Mams death. And will close the show on #GroundhogDay - the day of her funeral. She is played by a doll I found on a road outside Carlow and whom I call Vonnie Dooley in her
11. memory My 90 year old Da Tom still lives alone in our family home, which is like a new pin. He project managed the build of a new kitchen last year and plays violin on a folk orchestra and drinks a drop of @jamesonwhiskey every night before bed He is profoundly deaf. And yet
12. Still manages to tell me to whisht several times a day. I have used the wisdom of great loss to rethink how to be in the world. Siobhan spent 7 years propped sideways in a chair. I'm doing it because she couldn't. Vonnie Dooley is her doppelganger and my Da buys her gifts.
13. The entire crew has seen evidence of her ability to charm jaded directors and make tiny miracles happen. I look forward to telling the rest of this jaw dropping story in bars in New York.
@threadreaderapp please unroll 💚
