"Before They Call, I Will Answer, While They Are Still Speaking, I Will Hear." Part Four.

There was SO much that I had to do before the big move to his new flat.

I had to contact everyone to let them know that Eric was moving. Gas, Electric, Poll Tax, Water, banks, building society, doctors, and chemist, to cancel, the post office, to forward his mail for a year. Data protection, at first hindered, rightly so. Eric wasn’t with me when I made my phone calls, on his behalf. It was very time consuming, on hold, listening carefully to all the machine messages, and writing everything down, and giving them his new address.

Next, I had to arrange the removal van.

Before Eric moved into his nice new flat, I had to have it completely fitted with new carpet, but not the kitchen. Meter readings from both flats had to be read, and given to the companies.

It was a new fresh start. I had his money to buy a new two-seater sofa, his pine table was scrubbed clean and looked lovely. A new microwave was bought, with toaster and kettle. New cutlery, new blinds, paid for and fitted, new clothes, from Tesco and Tkmaxx. Helpers and carers were, set up and ready to help and support. Some he would be paying for and some would be on the NHS. The ones who looked after his bad leg, was on the NHS and the ones who ‘cooked’ he paid for.

In our minds, Eric was moving to a care home, with his own flat. This was just what he needed. In the huge two-story building, there were thirty flats.

Just after a month after he moved, the penny that was about to dropped, dropped!!! To my horror, I found out it was not a care home. I told his social worker who had found and secured it for him, the social worker too was shocked, when I told him.

Eric paid all his own bills in his flat. There were no facilities for laundry, so, I had to find one, and take his laundry to be done.

There was a cook, and a menu. For the meals. There was a dining room. Eric was a recluse; most people didn’t know he was there. The menu would be posted to the flats and he, if he wanted lunch or dinner, he had to tick what he wanted, everything was for the next day. The price of each lunch, dinner and pudding was next to each meal. Eric never went to the dining room, nor did he go and collect his meals, so the was charged £1.50 each time for the cook to walk the 20 yards to his flat door! Each month, he had an invoice, that I would then go to the office and pay on his behalf.

I thought that was bad, when one day, I was informed, “If he fell over, inside his flat or in the hall way, no one would help him up, he would be left where he is, and the ambulance would be called.” I was beyond gobsmacked.

There were carers there, but they were only for the people who were paying for them. It took a bit of getting used to, for they all wore uniforms of the Company they worked for.

The one main drawback was the Manager, who was not there very often. The answerphone was full, so no more messages could be left. It was very frustrating, not been able to get her, for she was my only contact to Eric, when Eric forgot to charge his phone, or he accidently turned it off, I needed to know that he was ok. And now that he had moved, he was now just over five miles away, where before he was much nearer, he still paid for all my petrol, and my time.

Now that he had moved, his new take away was usually fish n chips, but not always. He still had KFC, McDonald’s, and Nando’s.

In his new flat, he still slept on his new sofa. Then one day, he said, “I would like a bed.” I reminded him, “You haven’t slept in a bed for years, I think it would be a waste of your money.” Eric wanted a bed. So, with his money I went and got him a new bed and from TKMaxx, I got all the bedding, two lots, one for the bed, and the other to be washed, four pillows, as he told me, “I can’t lay down flat,” Duvets, and valance sheets etc.

It was flat packed, so Paul and I put it together, it was pine and very beautiful. The bed, the lovely memory foam mattress, and all the beautiful bedding and pillows all together cost £500. It looked wonderful in the bedroom. He never slept in it, not even for one night!

He had paid support for his food, but he paid for 30 minutes, and they would only come for 15 minutes, they were not allowed to use the cooker, their Company said, only the microwave, they often could not read, nor understand the instructions, on the microwave meals package, and twice they ruined his new microwave, by catching it on fire! A new microwave had to be bought, twice.

Eric had no cleaner, so when he was unwell and went into hospital, Paul and I would use that time, wisely to spring clean his flat. I would clean his bathroom; Paul would clean the kitchen and we both would clean his Lounge. Eric had been passing blood for years, the doctors did know, So, I saw that in various stages, when I cleaned his loo.

When we went over to bring his shopping each week, after we put it all away, we would stop a while and chat with Eric. Sometimes he would say, “The people on the telly, they are talking to me,” But thankfully now that was not very often.

Some of my cousins, they on their own, would go and visit Eric once they knew where he lived, Andrew would visit a few times and Garry too. This was in the old flat.

On one of those occasions, Eric had said to Garry, “When I die, I want Maxine to have all my money.” Garry then told his Mum, and his Mum, my Auntie, told her best friend, her sister, who is my Mum. My Mum hadn’t said anything to me, but one day, when I was at my Auntie’s house, she told me what my cousin, her son said, I was shocked, to say the least.

After Eric had been in his nice new flat, a year, he said to me, “I want to make a Will, please can you arrange for a solicitor, to come and see me, so that I can do it.” My older cousin, I told her, and she said, “Here is the number of the solicitor that I use, give her a ring, so that you can arrange for her to go to his flat.” I rang the solicitor and it was all arranged, that my older cousin would be with Eric, with the solicitor. I would not be there.

When my older cousin was there with the solicitor, Eric refused to do the Will! So, it did not happen. When my older cousin went back home, she rang me and told me all about it.

The next time, that I went to Eric’s flat, I said to him, “You didn’t do the Will, it is a good thing to do, to put down your wishes of what you want to do with your money,” I went on, “I have done a Will, so that my wishes will be done when I am gone.” I said to him, “Do you want to do a Will?” He replied, “No,” I said, “OK, that is not a problem.”