Free Christmas in the Snow by Karen Swan Page B

neck strained from the effort to remain impassive as she registered the silence in
the room and all the eyes on her. She thrust her chin in the air as she reached for her bag and made her way quickly from the room. She knew the drill – experience had taught her not to move
a muscle, not to say a word. Nothing would have helped. She couldn’t have leaned forward to kiss her goodbye, to put her arms around her in a comforting hug. Julia would have screamed. She
would have screamed like she was being murdered and Barry would have had to pull her off like an aggressor, for her mother was no longer her mother; Allegra was no longer her daughter. They were
strangers again, and both of them were alone.
    ‘You have to sign this.’ Allegra tapped the paperwork on the table as Isobel tried to lose herself in freezing ice-cube trays of courgette purée. ‘And
I’m not leaving until you do.’
    Isobel turned round, a silver spoon in one hand, the green-gunged saucepan in the other. ‘I don’t understand why we have to rush into this now.’
    ‘This is not rushing.’ That wasn’t strictly true. Allegra had sped straight here from seeing their mother, finally wielding the paperwork her lawyer had drawn up for them
several months ago. ‘We’ve had our heads in the sand for too long now. It’s been nearly three years since diagnosis, six since she started having real problems, and the situation
is deteriorating badly – you know that. Mum had four minutes’ lucidity with me, tops, today. And she had no recollection at all of having seen you this morning.’
    Isobel sighed, dropping the spoon into the pan. ‘But I thought the whole point of putting her into that flat and having Barry there twenty-four seven was to avoid this – at least for
a little while longer.’
    ‘Iz, there is no avoiding this. Barry is an excellent nurse and we’re so lucky to have found him—’
    ‘We’re so lucky you can afford him, more like.’
    Allegra missed a beat. It was true. She had earned good money for a decade, barely dipping into the pot for her work wardrobe or the Poplar flat, and she’d bought the Islington house
almost out of embarrassment that she didn’t have anything to spend it on. Her long business hours precluded a social life or exotic holidays and she didn’t care about ‘toys’
like cars or boats. It was sad to admit that paying for a live-in nurse to share the flat in the sheltered village with Julia was one of her greatest extravagances. She knew Isobel felt guilty that
she couldn’t contribute to their mother’s care equally, in that way. ‘That’s irrelevant. All that matters is Barry knows how to make Mum feel relaxed and safe. He makes her
laugh like no one else can, and he’s the only one who worked out that singing calms her down during an episode. He’s brilliant and she’s happier than she’s been for a long
time. But even
with
all that, there is no way back from here. Mum’s condition will continue to deteriorate, and the bald truth is, she can’t now make the big decisions –
be they legal, medical or financial – that need to be made for her own safety and protection. We have to be her voice now in these matters.’
    ‘I know, I know. I just . . .’ Isobel sighed again, dumping the pan back on the hob and wiping her hands on her apron as she walked over to where Allegra was sitting and slumped in
the chair opposite. ‘Well, why do we have to split the power of attorney between us?’
    ‘You mean, why can’t
I
do it all?’ Allegra asked bluntly.
    ‘No! I mean, isn’t it better if just one person does the property and affairs bit, as well as the health and welfare stuff? Won’t splitting it up just complicate things?’
In the sitting room beyond, they could hear Lloyd cheering as Chelsea scored a goal against Arsenal. He was supposedly bonding with Ferdy, who – having discovered the freedom that came with
crawling – was doing laps of the sitting room before