Chapter 66
SIXTY-SIX
DECLAN
When Declan took a call from the hospital regarding Alice, he was prepared for bad news. Despite the doctors saying Alice was doing well, she had looked tired when he had visited her yesterday.
Thankfully, she had not broken her hip but rather sustained a small fracture in her pelvis that would not require surgery, but plenty of rest.
The doctor informed him that Alice was to be discharged later that morning.
‘She has made remarkable progress for a woman her age,’ the doctor told him. ‘I feel she would progress further in her own environment, and, of course, she will be discharged with a care package, involving a carer popping in until she is completely stable on her feet.’
‘That’s great news,’ said Declan. He agreed that her continued recovery would improve back home. He, Mark and Jess had been regular visitors to the hospital, but it would be easier for them to keep an eye on her at the apartment, as they had done following her chest infection.
Alice’s nephews had been to visit her in hospital a couple of weeks ago, whilst Declan had been there.
He thought they seemed like nice enough blokes.
They had expressed regret that their own mother had not been well enough to visit her sister.
Still, they kept in touch via Alice’s tablet, as they always did.
‘I would offer to collect her,’ Declan told the doctor. ‘But I won’t be free until late afternoon,’ he said, thinking of a couple of meetings he had with potential clients. The way things were going, he would probably need to employ a part-time accountant sooner rather than later.
‘Don’t worry about that. It is probably a more comfortable ride in the ambulance,’ the doctor assured him. ‘Is it possible there would be someone to be at her home when she returns, would you know?’ the doctor enquired.
Declan thought of Mark, or perhaps even Jess, and hoped they might be free. He would give them a call.
‘I will make sure someone is there to greet her,’ he told the doctor.
If they were unavailable, he would get away as soon as he was free.
He was so grateful that Jess and Mark were there to look after Alice, but he was determined not to let work overshadow the rest of his life. He had come to learn that friends were everything. Especially friends like his.