I can’t bring myself to move my mother ‘down south’ – it would mean saying goodbye to my childhood

If we move her away from ‘up north’, a big chunk of our past and our parents’ history would be consigned to memory, writes Jenny Eclair

June became very forgetful in the autumn of last year, after a fall in her flat (Getty)

The light is getting bigger at the end of the Covid tunnel. Since being jabbed more than two weeks ago, I have been busy ticking off lots of “first time since March 2020” events. These include galleries, restaurants, going on public transport, having friends in the house, cinema and theatre.

I have also been back up north to visit my mother in her nursing home; a journey which took eight hours – complete with an AA drama which, mercifully, coincided with a lunch stop on the M6 toll road. Given the choice, Norton Canes is a fine service station at which to grind to a halt, because it has a Leon – and if you’re going to spend 90 minutes waiting for the third emergency service, then I can heartily recommend spending some of that time scoffing a paprika chicken and roast veg box. I digress.

A lot of people question why my mother is in a nursing home in Lancashire, when her three children live down south?