A Caregiver’s Story Of Stress And Survival
Look for Cindy’s story on Page 41 of the May 2011 issue of Life After 50: http://tinyurl.com/3qvzxe2
Here’s an excerpt:
“Caregiving often creeps up on us when we least expectit. As women and mothers, we are busy living our lives; working our careers, caring for our children, our spouses or partners and trying to fnd a few minutes each day to care for ourselves. Sadly, many women have forgotten the need for self care and yet, this is the single most important element of life that women need to be in touch with. Today’s working woman yearns for some down time – time alone or time spent with friends. Our world is wrought with stress and busyness. How do we survive and live a life of richness, generosity of spirit and internal peace? Sometimes it takes an avalanche for us to fnd these answers.
My story was a bit different than most, but my struggles were universal. I cared for my ex father-in-law for almost six years and I was wholly unprepared for the journey that lay ahead. I was one of those people thrown into a situation I knew nothing about. I was asked by my ex father-in-law,with whom I had a close relationship, one night at dinner to pay his bills and check on his wife, who suffered from severe arthritis and dementia, while he had open-heart surgery at the age of 83. His reason for having such invasive and risky surgery was so he could see his granddaughter graduate from college and, as he said to me, “Without this operation, I won’t make it.”
You can imagine the effect of such a statement. I agreed without giving it any further thought, never imagining the impact this would have on my life. I naively thought this promise to help out would be a minor investmentof my time. My fulltime career, although not personally fulflling, was nonetheless, very fulltime. My daughter was heading off to college, three thousand miles away and she needed her mom. My husband needed a partner, a best friend, and truthfully, neither of us understood the powerful changes that were about to become our lives.”
