Stories from Caregivers: Anita from CALIFORNIA
CA
Anita
FROM CALIFORNIA
I had been caring for both my mother & father. My father passed away this pass July. I am now taking care of my mother. My father had dementia and my mother fell last year & is not able to get around very good. This has really been a tough year, especially today being Thanksgiving and not sharing it with my father. Really tough! But I have to go on as now my mother needs me even more. She cannot get around good any more, she is on a walker but I think I'm going to have to get her a wheelchair, she tires very easily. I am retired but this is now my full time job. Its hard work but when I am there doing it I just do what I have to do and only when I am heading home and once at home do I feel my body in pain and being so tired emotionally and physically. I cook, clean, shop for her run errands & take her for doctor apts. When I shop I shop for the both of us when I cook I prepare enough for both of us. I care for her every day. She lives in a senior apt. When I arrive she wants me to sit and rest, but there is always something to do. Before my father passed I would stand in long lines at the pharmacy and one day I said I cannot do this anymore so I now have out meds mailed. Standing in line for my mother and father on different days too much. I did not think about these days when I was younger, I heard about it but it never crossed my mind I would be a caregiver. It's hard watching your parents almost tuning into children, it breaks my heart. But it is my job as their daughter, they took excellent care of me and my 2 brothers who are deceased, it's all on me. Some days are rewarding and some hard. My father would tell my mother often "we are blessed to have such a wonderful daughter". Some days I wake up and say I can't do this, my whole body aches, but when I start moving I'm good till the end of the day and somehow I get through it. You have to have a plan to get through the day, figure out how to make things easier for you and your loved one. I'm their daughter, they depend on me and I have to be there for them. They are my parents! I just pray that nothing happens to me. I have had several members of my family including one of my brothers die of Alzheimer's. God Bless All the Caregivers in the world.
