Supporting all who care for elders
As a fiction writer, one of the skills I’ve developed is to get inside my characters’ heads and hearts. I need to feel what they are feeling and then spill that onto the page in ways that draw my reader in. That’s what makes today’s blog so difficult to write.
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I hate my walker. When I had my first hip replacement five years ago, I was able to leave my walker behind after about six weeks and use only my cane. But time and arthritis creeping into other parts of my body made it different this time. At five months in, I am still using
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On Friday, Sarah experienced the nightmare every care partner dreads. She came over to her mom’s apartment to find her on the floor. Fortunately, she’d only slipped down as she tripped over a kitchen mat about ten minutes before Sarah arrived. Her bottom had received most of the impact, and other than a large purple
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As a little girl of no more than five, my mother wanted to bless an older lady at Christmas. She lived around the corner, and we were going to visit. To me, Mrs. McIntyre was tottering with one foot in the grave. She may have been 70 or approaching 90. My “little girl”
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Roger had been taking the anti-depressant for two months now. The doctor had warned him that they were starting with a small dose and would raise it slowly as needed. He said he would monitor closely, and that it often took some time to find the correct drug and dosage for each person. “Covering his
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Roger’s moods hadn’t gone unnoticed. But help came from an unexpected source. Jenna picked up the call at work. The voice on the other end of the line hesitated. “Hi, This is George McDuff. You don’t know me, but I’m a friend of your dad’s. We play cards together on Wednesdays.” Jenna’s “worry meter” immediately
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Elders caring for others is a radical idea. I know, because I had difficulty researching the topic. No matter what words I put in the search engine, it took me to ways to care for elders. Elders contributing, caring, volunteering and giving is unheard of. Let’s change that. Elders already care for others in many
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I killed my tomato plant. I’m a decent gardener and puttering in my garden brings me great joy. I don’t often kill plants. When I saw my tomato plant withering, I took it personally. The plant had come home from the garden centre looking healthy and already growing a few tomatoes. I planted it in
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Megan decided she needed to start with a list. She invited her dad over to dinner one night, and after he’d enjoyed a hearty barbecue, she told him what she proposed. “I have some ideas of what you like, but some things may have changed, and I don’t know what to do about vegetables. Then
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“Hey, Dad.” Megan stepped into her father’s apartment with a fresh load of clean laundry in her arms. Since her mother’s death several months ago, her dad had slowly found his way through the process of living alone. He’d always been a fairly tidy person, so he kept his apartment clean and picked up. Megan
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