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Oh Hello, do sit down! Just call me Margaret. I can't be doing with people calling me Mrs. Brown. I'm 71 you know and have lived in this house since I was married when I was 17, (laughs) I don't like to think back that far. Things were so different then. Some of the folks at the club I go to say that they were far better. Well myself I'd say you've got to look the future not behind you all the time. I wouldn't have been able to get my hips done back then, would I? My old Grandma, God rest her soul, had to put up with that pain for years. Nothing they could do back then you see.

Anyway, I live here now with my daughter and my two grand-daughters. They moved in since my Joe died, five years ago now. Oh they didn't move in because he died, no my daughter lost her job, and that fella she was with well he walked out on her, never liked him much if truth be told, and she couldn't afford her own place, lost it you see, repossessed I think is the word they use. So she moved in here with me. It's not always easy, but it is company. My daughter's…. well let's say not much of a coper, so a lot of it falls on me really. Didn't think I'd be taking on two girls to bring up at my age. And now our Kate's pregnant – at 17. It's 'cos she's out on the town half the night.(Laughs). Now that's something my poor of Gran wouldn't have put up with.

I find it a bit much some times all the cooking and cleaning for all four again.. and I don't get any financial help. My daughter still hasn't got a job and I never see much of her giro. I've also got my brother to think of. He lives on his own since his Betty died. Sudden it was, stroke you see. One minute OK, the next ..gone. Such a shock. We were close me and ol' Betty. Well he went to bits. Never had to look after himself before, so now I have to do my best to do what I can for him, cooking, cleaning and so on. He doesn't help, he doesn't bother, so I'll get everywhere all nice and the next time I go it's back to square one. He's lonely too you see, stuck up in that tower block on his own. Relies on me for company. Why he doesn't go out to bowls,or the pub, or even my club I don't know, but he won't hear of it.

Anyway my hips were a bit of a blessing. I had them done OK, but when I got home I didn't really get the help I needed, and Evelyn, my daughter, well she wasn't able to help me much, with the physio and all that. She did ask them to keep me in, told them that the "stress would be too much for her", but they want the bed for someone else I suppose. Anyway I got an infection. My leg went red and hard like a football.. and oh the pain. I ended up in the hospital and then I was in for ages. Well the infection just got worse and no matter what they did it wouldn't go away. There was even talk about them taking my hips out again. Out again can you imagine? Well by that time I was in so much pain I didn't care (laughs). Oh I can laugh now, but at the time it was terrible. I had so many different pills, injections.. thought I would rattle. Eventually they got better and I got home, but it was a long process. They don't tell you that do they?

What are the stages of bereavement identified by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross? (See her book called "on Death and Dying".)

Using Erikson's model of psychosocial development, what is the stage Margaret is experiencing?
How can you relate this to her narrative? Think about Margaret's physical health problems, how might these affect her self-image and identity?

What current political developments might affect Margaret?

What might an assessment for her physical health problems include?