May 14th, 2013
…
Sometimes, my son makes bad choices. So does my mother. Nicholas almost always decides what he wants (and what he doesn’t!) based on short term pleasure (and pain avoidance). This means, he will NEVER choose to have an injectable medication, an enema, or go the ER, even if his life depends on it. Luckily, Nick’s caregivers and his family know Continue reading
May 2nd, 2013
By Cath Carley
…
Mom is my best friend and I can talk to her about anything. She is strong when I need her to be and pushes me when I need to be pushed. She makes my dreams come true (and Dad). She’s seen me at my lowest and highest. She knows my inner secrets. She sort of understands me.
May 2nd, 2013
By Micheal Oswald
Been with my momma for two decades and change
Now I have to explain, can’t refrain
From representing
All the times she hugged and loved me
Wiped the tears from my eyes
Made me smile
Not cry
Rescued me from bad situations
Dark locations
Supported every dream with constructive criticism
There are not enough ‘isms’ to express …
May 2nd, 2013
As I look out of my living room window, I think about my neighbors. I don’t know anyone in my area who has invited an aging parent to live at home, together with children and grandchildren. But could this trend of isolating ourselves from our elders be slowly changing? I’m hearing more and more of my contemporaries worry aloud about …
April 15th, 2013
The world is reeling from the news of a terrible explosion at the Boston marathon.
In my morning newspaper today, I read this by Craig and Marc Kielburger, brothers who founded the charity Free The Children and the Me To We… Social Enterprise:
“A Halifax girl is allegedly raped by four of her classmates, and her peers use social Continue reading
April 13th, 2013
Before computers, I relied on a monthly magazine for my connection to other caregivers. I was a new mother of a baby with severe disabilities and that magazine was called “Exceptional Parent”(now re-named EParent Magazine)…. I would rifle through the magazine in search of the page titled ‘Letters’ and there, I would read messages such as “Hi, my name Continue reading
April 10th, 2013
“Memories of My Parents”… by Amy Madge is a story of love. Not romantic love, but the love of a daughter for her parents. Amy Madge never married – she chose to devote her life to a career, but hers was a really, REALLY close family.
Amy became her parents’ caregiver in their later years and it was a job Continue reading
April 3rd, 2013
The idea of personal choice is not something that we think of every day, but it’s a little like fresh air – try living without it. As the needs of a loved one escalate, opportunities for caregivers to exercise personal choice diminish. Of course, the effects of disability or aging negatively affect peoples’ ability to choose. My mother and my Continue reading
April 1st, 2013
On holiday in Cat Island, Bahamas recently, something
happened. Regular readers of my blog
might recall that I’ve blogged about Cat Island before… – it’s a remarkable
place in its beauty, its simplicity and its authentic (but few)
inhabitants.
Last year, I visited an 87 year old firecracker called Miss
Ella Sweeting. Back then, Miss Ella sang us a couple Continue reading
March 28th, 2013
Caregiving a job that is made up of hundreds of small tasks. Each task in itself seems perfectly doable. But taken together and over time, caregiving can be isolating and soul destroying.
It doesn’t have to be that way. The beginning of putting a broken caregiver’s life back together is the realisation that no one person alone can take care Continue reading
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