Beginning to fail?

Took Home Communion to M. today. I haven’t been to her since December, because she was whisked off into hospital in January with a chest infection and remained there for around six weeks or so.

M. was ninety-seven last Wednesday. She’s back in her own home, living alone, but today for the first time since I’ve been taking her Home Communion in ten years, I made the tea. We always have a cup of tea together after the little service and M. has always got the cups and saucers ready on a tray.

There’s a kind of ritual to make perfect tea and M. is a dab hand at it. First she boils the kettle, then pours a little hot water into the teapot to warm it, then she spoons in the loose tea (never tea bags!), puts milk in the cups, then comes and sits down again for four minutes while the tea brews. Then she’s up again, it’s a final stir and she pours out the tea and carries each cup in one at a time. Then we sip our tea and she tells me all about the latest exploits of the family.

But today! Today she is much thinner. Today she remained sat in her chair and when I offered to make tea, she let me. It wasn’t anything like as good as her tea since I failed to warm the pot and couldn’t be bothered to wait for the full four minutes, but she didn’t complain. Then she let me take the cups out and wash everything up.

So I’m now wondering. Is M. beginning to fail? I do hope not – it would be so sad – but I guess I can’t really expect anything else.