November 29, 2017: Getting settled after a few years

There are many triggers that you will discover while taking care of your loved elder. Perhaps the most obvious are the ones where current ways of dealing with the reality are in conflict with prior ways. This is true especially on holidays. The last year we got a lot stronger, even if it is still… Continue reading November 29, 2017: Getting settled after a few years

November 21, 2017: What’s good for them will often terrify you

Things don’t necessarily go as well as all of this below, often, anyhow– but there are moments that remind me just how hard Mom is working all day every day to try and hold on to whatever she can. She is not giving up, and moments below make that clear. The hardest part of helping… Continue reading November 21, 2017: What’s good for them will often terrify you

July 14, 2017: Two years sober and smokeless

Nothing scared me more than failure when I decided to make this work. Nothing seemed a more sure fire recipe for disaster than on again, off again drinking problems mixed with the emotional minefield that is this process. I made it more than a month when Mom first moved home, but foolishly decided to have… Continue reading July 14, 2017: Two years sober and smokeless

June 6, 2016: An overwhelmingly difficult week

This is one that is hard for me to re-read, I could re-immerse myself very quickly in the feelings of self-doubt, etc brought on by too many horrible convergences in the same week. Sometimes it helps to get overly philosophical, and this was one of those rants. I can see myself processing through the paragraphs.… Continue reading June 6, 2016: An overwhelmingly difficult week

December 20, 2015: Why Christmas is so hard now

I admit to having an internally visceral response to even considering re-reading this material– the Xmas of the first year Mom was home with me was one of the harder times for me to get through, and while I do not wish to suppress the emotions associated with what I learned about myself and this… Continue reading December 20, 2015: Why Christmas is so hard now