Grandma is all birthday-ed out. It looks like we run a florist and we have enough biscuits to last us until Christmas. I thought I would finish the celebrations off in style with a weekend visit to her favourite Marks&Spencers shop to spend her birthday voucher gift from a neighbour.

She always likes these little excursions into Rochdale and takes the opportunity to make me go to the bank to get some unnecessary cash. As I worked the cash machine, grandma stood with her back to me, clutching her handbag like a particularly nervous looking bodyguard, don’t let the frail old lady look fool you, I’m sure she could still do some damage with a well-placed whack of her walking stick. We also went to get a card for something happening in August, cards with nothing written in them are a must for old people in my experience, so I spent quite a while reading and describing more than two dozen cards until Grandma picked her favourite. Card picking is a very serious job and must be done right.

After picking up my treat for the day, a take away coffee, giving grandma time to rest and eavesdrop on people’s coffee conversations, we headed into M&S. Grandma likes to ‘drive’ the shopping cart with me at the front guiding it. I go into full seeing-eye granddaughter mode on these trips as her eyesight is very poor and she can’t really see what she is picking up. She decided she wanted a new jumper so we slowly walked round the aisles with me providing a running commentary of what was happening and what was on display and her feeling the items of clothing. She soundly rejected anything that didn’t feel nice to her, had no pockets, a V neck, anything with no sleeves, or that was black. Her rejections were overly dramatic and usually sounded like: ‘Oh no. How anybody can wear things like that beats me!‘

We managed to find a few items she liked and went to try them on. She settled on a brown jacket and I bought her a nice royal blue jumper and a stripy T-shirt. She was delighted with her haul but I was deemed a ‘naughty girl’ for paying.

‘Tough luck, grandma, you can’t stop me. And I’m going to be even naughtier now, I’m going to take you to brunch!’

‘OOH! What is that?‘ she said, sounding instantly stressed.

‘It is like an early lunch, we passed a place that’s just opened that looked nice.’

‘Oh…’ She hesitated.’Well, I guess it saves you cooking.’ was her justification for this plan deviation.

‘That’s the spirit. Now be careful, there is a step.’ I said, as I guided her inside the restaurant.

After I’d got her settled, I read the menu options for her. She loudly said ‘EWW!‘ with any dish containing avocado, hummus or yoghurt, and settled on eggs Benedict and a large glass of wine, naturally.

Grandma really enjoyed her brunch and spent it happily retelling me all the same anecdotes I’ve heard dozens of times. I made all the necessary noises at the right places, happy she was enjoying herself, and felt like we were having a normal grandmother/granddaughter interaction for the first time in a few months. Being a carer for a family member changes your relationship with them and it was nice to have that little moment of fun.

The brunch was a great success and grandma spent the rest of the afternoon fast asleep from all the excitement. Maybe I’ll plan a big birthday brunch when she turns 100!