The woman in the queue behind us in the supermarket glared angrily as my mother tried and failed to tap her credit card.

We had tapped it in the chemist successfully, but she must have been on her last tap, again, and now she was out of taps. I felt my chest tightening. Here we go.

My mother started arguing about why her card should be working, and when I got my card out, she said: ‘No, don’t be silly! I’m getting this!’

A few years on from a vague diagnosis of some sort of vascular dementia to do with blood flow to the brain, she has no idea what a PIN is, never mind what her PIN is. She kept tapping the card and the machine kept rejecting it with what seemed like deafening beeps as the woman behind us in the queue started talking in hushed, angry tones to the woman behind her.

I could well imagine from their faces what they were saying. Something about me not paying for my mother’s shopping, probably. People who judge your way of dealing with a situation like this rarely watch or listen properly to what is going on. They simply decide they could do it better.

I have this when I visit my parents at their home and the helpful neighbours all find a way to tell me how sad it is for them. It being the situation as these neighbours see it.

People who judge your way of dealing with a situation like this rarely watch or listen properly to what is going on

‘We put their Christmas lights up for them,’........

© The Spectator