Unfiltered Story #316712

My mother has dementia and lives in a care home. She seems happy enough there and a few of her friends visit her regularly. Recently there was a bit of a mystery: the staff at the care home kept telling me that my mother’s Polish friend had been visiting and speaking to her in a foreign language. My mum doesn’t have any Polish friends, nor does she speak Polish; she is South African so she speaks Afrikaans, but she doesn’t have anyone in her life who shares that language with her. After weeks of wondering and worrying – who was this stranger speaking to my mother? What did they want with her? – I happened to speak with one of my mother’s friends, who is Irish. I mentioned the Polish mystery, and after a moment the penny seems to drop for her:

Friend: Your mum sometimes forgets whether she’s speaking English or Afrikaans when we talk, but I lived in the Netherlands for years in the 80s, so I can understand her either way and respond in Dutch. I wonder why they thought I was Polish!

I never would have guessed this Irish lady would be the mysterious Polish visitor. I have no idea why the staff mistook an Irish accent and Dutch for Polish, but I am so glad that someone is able to communicate with my mum when she’s speaking her childhood tongue and that the resolution was heartwarming, rather than sinister.