My dear GFPs, before I say anything else I want to thank you so much for your many kind emails after last week's newsletter. They meant a lot to me during a tough time. Mum was sent to hospital again on Friday night, and has been discharged with a new course of antibiotics -- which, unlike the last course, fingers crossed, seem to be making a difference. She is eating much better and seeming, mostly, to be breathing much better. I have, however, been left with a bit of a sour taste in my mouth about some of the treatment she received, none of which was alleviated by reading the front page story in yesterday's Sunday Times. This quotation in particular hit me hard:he says it was easier to exclude the elderly from intensive care because the fear of infection meant there were no families visiting who might challenge the decision. “Certainly for some of the fitter 75 year olds we could have taken, we should have taken [into intensive care] and we probably would have done as a result of pressure from families,” he said....because that was exactly how I felt about not being able to accompany her when she was sent to hospital struggling to breathe, with a respiration rate well above normal and with oxygen saturation levels below normal. I just wish I could have been there. And I think we have to do more to ensure families *can* be there. To advocate, to make sure the person you love is recognised as a person and not a number, but also just to be there with someone who is scared they might be about to die.Anyway, thankfully, she seems to be doing better -- at least yesterday. She is asleep as I write and I am letting her rest.In other news, because the world does go on even during Covid, I had some nicer news this week, in that Waterstones have selected Invisible Women as their Paperback of the Year. AND we were back in the Sunday Times top ten this week. I guess someone decided I needed a break.