My high school friend, Sandy came by the house for a visit on New Year’s Day. Seeing Sandy is always a pleasurable, but unfortunately infrequent event as she and her husband have lived in Germany since the early nineties. Sandy arrived this day with her nine year old son, Danny and his best friend, Justin. The boys found their way into the pool even before the front door was fully opened. It was interesting to hear typical kids frolicking in the pool speaking German. My college German was no match to be able to keep up with them nor was my stamina. A few rounds of “Affe” (Monkey) in the Middle” were all I needed to be totally “Abgenutztes altes” (worn out). 

I think that resolution number three on my personal list of New Year’s resolution should move quickly up to number one - to start an “Ausubung des Programms” (exercising program). 

One day almost a decade ago, Sandy called her mother to share the joyous news that she was about to become a grandmother, in that same conversation Sandy’s mom shared the news she received of her cancer diagnosis. Accordingly, Sandy’s recent visits to South Florida, where we grew up, were related to her mom’s declining health and left little time for visiting.    

This trip to South Florida had its share of caregiving for Sandy, as well. She had been dealing with profound deafness and neck problems since a fall in a parking garage and her husband had been spending this trip in and out of doctor’s offices due to an extremely bad back. Although they were both in a lot of pain and discomfort during the trip, they worked hard to ensure that the boys had a good time. On one particularly bad day, Sandy sat sobbing on the bed in their hotel room. Danny sat down by her side and hugged her, saying “You never have anything to worry about, Mommy; I will always be here to care for you”.

And the beat goes on.  

Dates are still available for the 2005 Fearless Caregiver Conference Tour.  Bring a conference to your community. Contact us for more information.

The deadline has been extended for the third annual Caregiver Friendly Awards. The new deadline is February 28, 2005. 

 

Gary Barg
Editor-in-Chief
gary@caregiver.com