Deirdre Geraghty

Not really with it this morning. I need to sort my head out.

My ex husband and the father of my son died unexpectedly on Sunday night. We are all in a state of shock.

It’s the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz where over a million people, predominantly Jewish, were murdered by the Nazis. Please we must never allow anyone to do such evil things again. We can see this move to the right across the world again and should be aware that this is how it starts. Wise up!!

It is really difficult to think about anything else when my mouth hurts all the time my lower denture is in my mouth. The dentist said to leave it out as much as possible because it is touching my ulcers but I am about to eat my breakfast. Sounds petty and pathetic of me but it makes me feel unwell!!

I have been up for hours – thinking about whether I should get new lenses put in an old pair of frames which were my favourite pair of glasses of all time.

I spoke with my sister at 5 ish this morning. She lives in Galway in the Republic of Ireland and the storm was really bad there and very scary. Gusts recorded of 183 km/h. There’s a complete power cut and everything was completely black inside and out. And this morning there’s no sign of her wheelie bins. Thankfully all my sisters are okay.

I woke up late and thought I was too tired to get up but it was gone 9.00 and a week day so I pushed myself. I was just trying to eat my breakfast with my ulcerated mouth when the doorbell rang. I brought in a package and thought it was those things I had ordered from China and we had been tracking it. It was quite exciting that it had reached here after all this way! And I am delighted with it.

I was in a bad way yesterday. I was really in pain before the painkillers kicked in and too tired to get my breakfast or do anything else. But things improved greatly throughout the day with the introduction of rinsing the mouth with soluble aspirin in warm water as well as my paracetamol – great.

I have just noticed that the lectern that the Prime Minister is speaking from has changed. Gone is the fancy crest, the silly slogans etc. – just ‘Downing Street’ in a plain font. Much better.

When you have a sore mouth which l have since the dentist last week, it’s very difficult to do anything without being distracted. I have a new lining in my lower denture which has been rubbing my poor sore mouth but the dentist said to persist and I am trying to do that.