Home is.....?

Like a lot of people living on their own, I dread the thought of losing my independence and having to go and live a place where other folk make my decisions for me. I've always admired my neighbours and the library clients I visit for their determination to stay in their own home. for as long as they can.

But today we met up again with Lena, a library client in her 80s. She's a remarkable woman, the kind of person you know could have carved out a niche in life for herself if only she'd been able to have an education. She has a close-knit family and we've met a few of them, including her drink- and drug- addicted son who has spent time in jail. Lena doesn't judge him. She has explained to us that when her son was wee, she spent most of her time working. Nothing else for it. She feels she neglected him. He wasn't even ready for school (toilet-trained) when she sent him off. Many other mothers probably feel they've been in the same position.

Lena reads Dickens, Hardy, Austen, Fielding and George Eliott - not to mention modern classics like Evelyn Waugh, Margaret Atwood and Roddy Doyle. She'll try anything. She now has very bad eyesight, so her experience of literature comes via talking books, anything up to 12 a week.

Before Christmas, Lena got ill with emphysema, despite her grand-daughter's best offorts to get her off the fags and she ended up in hospital. Ten weeks in the Southern General finished off an elderly friend of mine the year before last, so I wasn't hopeful for Lena. But there she was today, discharged 5 weeks ago to Florence House in Drumoyne. Nicely dressed, hair done and with the biggest smile you can imagine when she heard her library folk come in.

We'll be delighted to go in to see her every week, bringing our choice of books for her to listen to as we have done for the past three years.

I think Florence House is a council-run facility. If that's the case, I have to say the council are getting some things right, despite the rest of us moaning about them. The atmosphere is great, the staff are friendly and caring, and Lena is happy.

Just what I want for myself.