What do you do? in blackpropaganda

1.40 am on Wednesday morning and the phone rang!
No one rings at that time of night unless it is a wrong number ( Can we get a taxi?) or there is an emergency.
Eventually we woke up sufficiently for me to work out it was the phone - and answer, with trepidation ‘You are picking me up at two o’clock?’ What the f.... I am picking him up at 2 pm on Wednesday afternoon to go to the hospital for him to have a check up - but he waffles on about the pain he is in - and needs to sleep - and I manage to tell him I shall be there on time.

Forty minutes later we are trying to settle and get back to sleep - the phone rings ‘It’s twenty past two and I have to be there at half past.’ ‘Hey - it is in the middle of the night - we are trying to sleep - I shall be there - please settle down.’ ‘Yes - it is dark and raining - but I have lost track of time’

We disconnect the phone - and eventually we doze and sleep. We are not happy!

He is nearly 80 - an old colleague - living alone - always very spritely - and just laughed about this when I picked him up - I was not amused - he had taken painkillers for the pain he had - how many? Too many. He mumbled about things on the way to the hospital - I thought he was having a procedure and would come to pick him up much later - in fact it was just an eye examination - but he asked the doctor about his pain. I took him home - and he was fine - but still mumbling about things - and last night we disconnected the phone - just in case.

Houston - we have a problem! He is divorced acrimoniously - his family live some way away - and I am not sure he can look after himself. And yet, you do not want to get too involved - so what do you do? Ah, the problems of old age.

We will leave the phone connected tonight!