Friday, September 30, 2016

Everything is Preparation

Six years ago at this time, my family was moving my dad into a rehabilitation facility so he could regain his strength and learn to walk again after having a hip replacement. Mom had started showing definitive signs of her Alzheimer's at the same time.

Every morning, I was driving mom to the nursing home to sit with my dad while I went to work. In the evenings, I left work and headed back to the nursing home where we would eat dinner with dad and stay with him until about an hour before bed. When dad was ready for bed, I would drive mom back home, log on to my computer and work until about 11PM before hitting the sack and starting the process all over again.

While it was a difficult transition for all of us, I am grateful for how far we have come since then. To a degree, life is harder for us now. Mom has no real decision-making ability any more, even though she is still largely self-sufficient and dad is using a walker. But I have left my home and I am living with them which is a situation for which I would have never been prepared had we not experienced it a bit back in 2010.

I never fancied myself the kind of person who could take care of my parents but it is my primary duty to ensure they are safe and healthy and able to enjoy the time they have left on this earth.  I am still learning. Every day, I see something else that needs to be changed or cleaned or replaced in the house to make their home more manageable or easy to live in for all three of us. And I am constantly learning how to navigate the challenges that come when the child is, generally, in charge of the parents. I would never want to do 2010 again but it confirms for me that everything is, indeed, preparation for something.