Stonebird

(but notice the rainbow..)

I visited my elderly, widowed mother yesterday; for the first time in months. Carer poverty. My mum had to buy me coffee; I have no money. How I would have loved to have been able to purchase that red coat she was looking at. My Christmas presents this year, as every year , are paltry items, from second hand stalls and pound shops. Anything above £2.00 is a major purchase, a luxury. Carer poverty; the 20 something pence an hour that carers receive is a far bigger scandal that the Banker's bonus's . Yet that is what dominated the news yesterday : highly -paid bankers are holding the Government to ransom over their multi-billion pound bonus schemes . While those of us who care for society's most sick and disabled are expected to get by on about £7.00 a day; the lowest of all income replacement benefits. My Christmas "bonus" - yes they call it that, this year, will be £10. What if we carers threatened to withdraw our services too ? We who save the UK about £60 ...

Went to an important meeting the other day : my shoes barely holding together. Celebrated my birthday this week; the agony and pain in her eyes. Her level of disability increases daily. Her suffering, so awful, is relentless. We survive through love....and the faith that only grows in the poverty beyond the narrow reach of religion. .......It just gets harder and harder. .