Betty was a great mammy.

I was an only child.

Growing up, my da worked away a lot.

My da was an HGV driver,

so it was always just me and my mum.

And I lost my da. It was 24 year past there, on the 2nd

of July, he's away.

I lost my da to pancreatic cancer. He was only

62. Never got a chance to retire, nothing.

My ma retired at 60. She worked for Pitt Street Police Station at the time.

She was a cleaner. That's what she'd done for years.

And basically, she took care of my da.

Five and a half months,

he was gone. And it's just been me and her from then.

My ma went in for a wee scan, and they said she's had a

wee stroke. She's had a wee mild stroke.

And then within seven or eight months, she was diagnosed with vascular dementia

through the stroke.

I first started noticing about October. September, October.

She was in there maybe in March. February, March.

First when I went up, I noticed she had a sore face.

Sometimes I'd go in and she would just kind of start greeting.

I'd say, "Ma, why are you greeting for?" She went, "I don't know."

And I'd take her hand to take her down the stair, and she said, "Ouch." And I

looked at her hand. It was all swell and, I don't know, and her palm

was all bruised, and I'm like, "How's this happened to her?" One of the wee

lassies says, "Did nobody phone you and tell you about it?" And I said, "No."

And I took photos, and then when I went to put a complaint in to the

manageress at that time, she's away. And I says to her, "What's happening here?

My ma's paying for one-to-one care.

What's happened she's got a sore face?" Apparently, she fell.

I say, "She's getting one-to-one care and she's paying for it." She says, "She

doesn't need it." That was the answer I got.

And I remember I

emailed the photos to the lassie, the photos of my ma,

and within 10 minutes, she phoned me

and says to me, "I'm really worried about your mum." I

mostly

spoke to a wee girl, Caitlin.

She was lovely. I got Caitlin quite a bit, and then I would get

Rhea. Again, she was a lovely lassie too.

Then at first I spoke to Nicola. I was angry on the phone. She knew.

She knows how I feel.

But as I say, it was not their mother.

When it's yours, it's a different story.

Liability.

We said liability. That's it. She'll go away. No.

It doesn't work like that. As I say, it was my mother, not theirs.

I know for some people, finance, it is about money.

But I think, see, when it's your mammy, my mammy was priceless.

I cannot put money on her.