The days flew by almost without Carla noticing to the end of the month and her big birthday. She was looking forward to Maddy and Sam coming over then for a holiday. She was loving her new life in France. She felt healthier, which she put down to swimming every day, walking more and mostly eating a Mediterranean diet of lots of fresh vegetables and fish. Her French was improving too, thanks to Joel. Every evening as they sat companionably on the terrace, Joel made her talk to him in French for a few moments.
Joel. He was a big part of her life these days and she really liked having him around. Telling him she couldn’t imagine celebrating her birthday without him being involved had been the truth. The evenings he worked extra late for his private clients and didn’t get home until nine or even ten felt lonely and empty without him there.
And despite all the family revelations from Josette, Carla felt in a good place. Far better than at the beginning of the year. Moving to France had been the right thing to do for her.
Twenty-four hours later and just an hour before Maddy and Sam were due to arrive, Carla ticked the last item off her to-do-list. Everything was organised for the next week. The food fridge was bursting with staple food items and there were more delicacies and luxury treats on the shelves than she cared to think about. The small wine fridge was crammed full of rosé and white wine, plus several bottles of champagne. Time to relax, swim, shower and dress.
Carla swam a few lengths before clambering onto the floating sunbed. Lying there on her tummy, drifting around the pool listening to the sound of the unseen cicadas somewhere high in the trees around the garden, was sheer bliss. For some reason, a memory of last year’s non-birthday came into her mind.
David had been away on a business trip. Something she’d had no right to be as happy about as she had been. The obligatory large bouquet of roses had arrived and she’d duly placed them in the ugly cut glass vase David’s mother had given her on a long ago birthday and stood it on the dining room table, visible to all. The twins had both sent her cards – Maddy’s with a spa voucher enclosed and Ed’s wrapped up with a silk scarf.
The weather had been foul – an ‘orage’ the French would call it. Roads had been flooded, hailstones as big as marbles had bounced off cars and windows. The lightening during the five hour storm had been spectacular and it was late afternoon before she’d braved the last of the rain and walked to Amelia’s. The air when the storm finally blew itself out was cool. Much like her reception from Amelia.
Already suffering health problems and in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, Amelia had been less than welcoming. Her weekly home help would have been in yesterday, Carla knew, but already the sitting room was untidy and the kitchen work surfaces were strewn with spilt breakfast cereals, toast crumbs, plates, dirty cutlery and broken pieces of china. As her shoes had scrunched across the linoleum, Carla had realised the broken china was the remains of the sugar bowl.
‘Mum, you could have swept up the sugar after you dropped the bowl,’ Carla had said, sighing and getting the dustpan and brush out. ‘You’ll have trodden it everywhere.’
‘Knew you’d do it when you got here,’ Amelia had said, shrugging before pointing at the paper bag on the table. ‘What’s in there?’
‘Two cakes for us to have with a cup of tea. As it’s my birthday today, I thought we’d treat ourselves.’ Carla had looked at her mother. Surely now she’d wish her happy birthday?
‘Hurry up and make the tea then, I’m starving,’ Amelia had said and went back into the sitting room and sat laughing at the cartoon channel on the TV.
Carla had put the cakes on plates, poured the tea into a china cup for Amelia and a mug for herself and carried it through. ‘I’ll just turn the sound down a bit,’ she’d said, reaching for the remote.
Amelia had glared at her and picked up one of the cakes.
‘You going to wish me happy birthday then, Mum?’ Carla had asked.
Amelia took a bite of her cake before saying, ‘No, and you’re not my daughter.’
‘If I’m not your daughter, who am I?’
‘Don’t know. Social Services?’
‘Oh okay,’ Carla had said. Futile to argue with Amelia.
‘This cake is delicious. You should have bought me more.’
An hour later, as she left, Carla realised that the afternoon marked a turning point in both their lives. There was no way Amelia could continue to live alone. Her mind was clearly deteriorating. It was time to find a retirement home for her, which Carla acknowledged in her own mind was the beginning of the real end for her mother.
Thinking about that birthday afternoon now as she drifted around the pool on the sunbed, it struck Carla how different things were just one year later. How different she herself was.
Climbing out of the pool to shower and get ready to meet Maddy and Sam, Amelia’s voice rang suddenly in her head again. ‘No, you’re not my daughter.’ Had that been a true Alzheimer’s moment? Or had a befuddled Amelia simply been stating the truth? Impossible to know, but, whatever the truth, it was all so sad.
Ten minutes after their arrival, Maddy and Sam were sitting on the terrace, Maddy with a glass of ice-cold rosé and Sam with a beer.
‘It’s so good to be back,’ Maddy said, sighing happily. ‘Can’t tell you how much we’ve been looking forward to this holiday.’ She took a sip of her wine. ‘Dad been in touch?’
Carla shook her head. ‘No, thank goodness. Did you tell him you were coming here?’
‘Yes. He phoned and wanted to know where you were spending your birthday, so I told him.’
‘How is he?’
Maddy shrugged. ‘Okay, I guess. He’s been working out and lost a ton of weight. I hope you and Josette have talked?’ she said, changing the subject and looking at Carla.
‘Yes, we’ve talked,’ Carla said. She knew she had to tell Maddy everything Josette had told her, but she’d been hoping to put the moment off for a couple of hours at least.
‘Good. You can fill me in with all the gory details later,’ Maddy said as though reading her mind. ‘First I need a swim. Sam?’
‘I’ll join you in a bit,’ Sam answered. ‘Quite happy here for now.’
As Carla and Sam watched Maddy swim a few brisk lengths before turning onto her back and drifting, Carla said. ‘Maddy seems to be accepting our changing family dynamics. First me and David divorcing, me moving to France, then all this business with Josette’s revelation.’ She turned to Sam. ‘I think you being there for her has helped more than a bit. Thank you.’
Sam shrugged her words away. ‘I mainly listened to her. Having divorced parents myself, I was able to understand some of what she was going through. As for Josette – I think Maddy’s hoping to get to know her better this holiday – she figures she’ll be a great granny. Have you seen much of Josette recently?’
‘Not since she told me the story behind my birth. I think we both decided we needed some breathing space to let things sink in. I hope she and Gordon will be spending the day here on Sunday though.’
‘I want to see her before then,’ Maddy said. Unnoticed, she’d floated close to the side of the pool and was now holding on to the edging stones and regarding them both. ‘I think we need a day out, the three of us. A spot of granny-mummy-daughter bonding.’ She smiled up at Sam. ‘You’d enjoy a day of mooching around Antibes by yourself, wouldn’t you? Good, that’s what we’ll do then. We can walk round to Josette’s later and organise the day. If we go to Cannes, we can indulge in a spot of retail therapy too. I’m dying to explore all the shops everyone talks about in rue d’Antibes.’