Mum's wallet

Mum's wallet was in her handbag for months before it vanished.  I kept checking and it had the thirty pounds she took to the home with her in March.  When it disappeared I assumed she'd lost it in one of her hospital visits and told the manager about it.

You'll be amazed where they turn up, she said.

Then it turned out that the manager herself had been helping herself to the residents' money. She threw away her record of Mum's loss.

She'd worked there for twenty years.

I didn't tell Mum.  She would forget anyway.  The new manager gave us her money back and apologised.

The old manager had a talent for choosing caring staff, so we keep her at the home.  But the cosiness and wholesomeness of the place has been depleted.