Aunt: *calling loudly from sitting room* Helen, can you help me?

Me: *drops everything, rushes to front room, expecting her to have fallen*

Aunt: The cat’s on my lap, could you pour me a small Jameson?

Cocooning with my ninety-year-old Aunt is not the life I’d imagined when I came back to live in Dublin after 30 years of being a high-flying media executive in London.

From the Groucho Club to our North Dublin coastal cocoon, it was back to earth with a bump. Funny and frustrating, living with the Aunt in our Covid bubble has been quite the eye-opener. Bickering, bitching, masking-up for rare outings, The Stairlift Ascends is a Twitter diary of our time trying to live together, of surviving the pandemic … and each other.

Love, lashings of apple tart, laughter and a longing for trips to Arnotts have seen us through, so far …

A hugely popular, funny and compassionate view on 2020 from @HelenORahilly

Helen O'Rahilly