Last summer I drove to California to help my sister move out of her home. Actually I was only one of many helpers. The reason I am mentioning this is that driving for 6 and 1/2 hours, alone, with an excellent book on CD and then the same amount of time back seemed like a vacation to me.....and that sounds pathetic, even to me.
I write this because I just went to Los Angeles for about 24 hours to see my daughter perform in a play. I had a wonderful time and enjoyed her company, that of her friends, some great meals out,and of course, the theater. The thought that came to me at some point, filling me with happiness was that the only person I had to be responsible for in the bathroom was M-E. Again, what a pathetic thing to be excited about, let alone even notice.
In my new guidebook (Gail Sheehy's Passages for Caregivers, I became aware of a couple of things: first of all, I almost decided NOT to go away because I was concerned about Mom's getting cared for in the bathroom, even though my husband said he would be fine handling that. I then remembered Ms. Sheehy saying how common it is for caregivers to think no one else can handle things and how important it is to nurture ourselves in all of this time. Wow that is hard, just hard! More thoughts tomorrow or later today on some of the
things that the book has brought up for me. In the meantime, time to set up the bathroom so the hospice nurse can give Mom a shower. Later.........
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