Gie, I'm so sorry that I didn't respond to your very kind post, thank you so much for your thoughts
It’s my brother’s birthday next week. I’m taking the day off work to take him out for lunch and to spend some quality time with him. I’m the only one who now visits him at the nursing home. There is very little change, although he does occasionally come out with a little gem, remembering something tucked away in the past. I was very touched last weekend to hear him softly singing away to a track by the Stylists, he remembered quite a lot of the words, bless him.
After nearly 4 years since becoming seriously ill in the Philippines and being repatriate back to UK, his partner has (understandably) now moved on and no longer visits. He has three sons in Philippines who are desperate to visit him but can’t, and one in this country who no longer visits.
The moral of this story ………. PLEASE don’t cut yourself off from your family, you never know when you might need them and they might be all you have left if things go horribly wrong