This is gripping Jan. Your sentence is so much better than mine. I wonder do you need 'ultimately' ?

I'm there Juno. In this precarious bygone London. I want to go forward. Images are forming at my mind's periphery, a figure with a hat, a person outside the shop. I'm on the edge of discovering this rich new world. But I wonder how it might read if you took out 'ague or'. Is ague necessary? It's a good word but might the sense remain the same and the story be unchanged but progress without it? The word fever in itself in the pre-antibiotic era was enough of a threat, perhaps.

Thank you very much for all the comments...I wonder please, how does this version compare? The clouds are full of thunder. The drum-roll to a day of hard truths. I need to stay positive: keep bleak thoughts out of my head, stay off whisky as long as I can. Keep busy. I mustn’t sit still. Thank God Grandad wouldn’t fork out for a dishwasher. Distraction, Philippa always said, can be a great help. I try not to think about Grandad. Look out the sash window at the rain. Go through the motions at the sink. I see him in his blue chair, sagging to the right but this time he’s lifeless, his false teeth bulging.

That's really helpful and useful Juno thank you. The disjointedness particularly. I wonder what you thought about the broken down doll at the dump please?