peachmanstewart

“How’s you mother doing?”“Oh, she’s just amazing. She’s 91, you know, and she still lives in her own house and does all her own cooking and cleaning. We bought her one of those monitoring things, where she can push a button if she gets in trouble, but that was more for our peace of mind. […]

We call it the “daughter from Florida syndrome” where I work. This is not to disparage daughters, and is certainly not about Florida (one of my favourite places in the world!) It’s a known fact that most care partners are women, and Florida is far from where I live. Hence the name. Just to make

I have a tiny screw in my glasses that keeps working itself loose. I’m not sure why, because I’ve never had to tighten the one on the other side. But every month or so, I have to grab a kitchen knife with a sharp edge and secure the screw. Except when I forget. If the

I was at work, and my husband, a victim of cardiac myopathy (enlarged, inefficient heart) was at home on short-term disability. It had been that way for several months, with several interruptions for hospitalisations. Since he had gone on disability, we had been looking for the new normal. We hadn’t found it yet. In the

Imagine you are in grade seven or eight. At school, you are at the top of the heap. You have worked your way up from frightening Kindergarten days to the confidence and coolness  of the oldest kids. In reality, you are probably far from confident, but on your home turf  and with your friends, you

I apologise for not posting for two weeks. My computer went on strike! The day you realised you could no longer be a full-time care partner, you set out on a journey. You researched and toured and talked to others, looking for the best place for your loved one. You looked at finances and wrote

Z is the end. No one wants to think about the end, but when the end comes, you’ll be glad you did. Since I’ve been working with the elderly, I’ve heard the term “palliative care,” but I was often confused about what it meant. When the hospital declared someone palliative, it didn’t seem to mean

I need to apologise. To God. There are many days–most days if I’m being honest–when I whizz past the beauty and the incredible wonders of his creation, and don’t look up. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, I saw that yesterday. And every day last week. Yeah, that tree is beautiful. Whatever.” I race out the door to

Y is for yesterday. Be careful not to deify it. What are your best memories?  I remember a time in the early years of our marriage. We were on our hands and knees, washing the kitchen floor. I can’t remember why, but things were tense, when suddenly the picture we made struck us both funny

X is for eXpert. (Okay, I cheated a bit. X is hard.) When you become a care partner, it’s often a new, unfamiliar world. The role sometimes is thrust upon you with little notice, and you look to all kinds of sources for help. Doctors speak a different language which is difficult to understand, especially