Interview

 

Hazel

Flabbergasted

80 something.

Am I?

The police took my pillows

I don’t know

We  sleep in the carpark every night, over there by the supermarket

Those aren’t mine

You are a buggery

buggery bastard

Shut up

She smells

You are very pleased with yourself aren’t you

Sheila is here

You are a bloody liar

It’s the Moroccans

You are a bloody liar

Apple pie

Sydney useless weak

That one is a mean bitch.

She pretends to be nice, but she isn’t,

You have hidden my things

I have no money

Don’t make me laugh

Very scheming and clever

but I see through you

Ann says she is sorting things

Last week we got the train to Waterloo

Pointless

They promised we could go to the party

Where is the British consulate?

I gave it away because I didn’t like it

I said I didn’t like it

This is all your fault get me out of here

Get Patrick

to give me a pill

Thankyou my darling

Sheila has made a picnic

I don’t know

I hate tea and I hate you

They threw the food

You are a bloody liar

He hid the cat under the bed

I know they have sold my coats to make room for Sheila

she lives in that cupboard

How should I know?

Nobody

I don’t care

The pudding was nice

With cream in a blue jug

How dare you

I’m sorry you have to do all this

My name is Hazel

Thank you for looking after dad

She is the nice one

If you like, I don’t care

I have two sisters

You are not one of us

Fuck off

He is useless and does nothing

That’s not mine

I don’t know them

Go now

I love you

Sheila and Harry are helping me look for the papers

I don’t know where my home is

why are you trying to trick me?

So, you can go there and steal from me?

You are a bloody liar

In the British Embassy

Get me out of here, get me out of here, get me out of here

Have you paid the milk bill?

I don’t have the time to talk to you

Useless, useless, weak and pathetic

Where is Amanda?

Take it away

Because I like pressing it

Just go now

That bloody doctor

Why have you left me here?

Hazel

Oh God

I hate you

I don’t want to watch it

I broke it

because I wanted to

Thank you for looking after dad

Did you do the Ocado order

Completely weak and useless

I need safety pins

Harry died penniless,

he killed himself

She’s very stuck up

Shut up shut up

Put the bed up, up I said

Can’t you do anything

They do very good poached eggs

You are a bloody liar

Do you think I’m stupid?

Call the police

Just fuck off

 

My 89 year old stepmother Hazel is in a secure dementia unit in Wiltshire. I visit her regularly and have written down her responses to the various questions we ask when we sit with her. She is convinced her sister Sheila lives in the cupboard (Shelia died years ago). We have no idea who Harry is. She is particularly horrible to my dad who sits at her bedside holding her hand as she hurls abuse at him