- Air Index
- BingTuDon bing translate
- TastyFaith.com
- http://www.aqicn.info/
- China to restrict US journalists from three major newspapers
- Coronavirus: Pound plunges to its lowest level in over 30 years
- Coronavirus: Hong Kong to quarantine all arrivals from abroad
- Back to school for some in China
- Alibaba's Ma donates coronavirus test kits to US
- Trump angers Beijing with 'Chinese virus' tweet
- Coronavirus: How the pandemic has changed the world economy
- Coronavirus: Life inside China's lockdown
- Mount Everest: Nepal's government shuts off mountain amid virus outbreak
- Coronavirus: China wildlife trade ban 'should be permanent'
- Coronavirus Wuhan diary: Living alone in a city gone quiet
- Coronavirus: Nasa images show China pollution clear amid slowdown
- Coronavirus: Chinese app WeChat censored virus content since 1 Jan
- China Uighurs: Detained for beards, veils and internet browsing
- The anti-Chinese prejudice being fuelled in Kenya
- Coronavirus: On the front line in Wuhan
- China economy: Why it matters to you
- The doctor who tried to warn others
- In 60 seconds: Who was China’s Li Keqiang?
- Violent tornado sends sparks flying on streets of Chinese city
- China to restrict US journalists from three major newspapers
- November 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- April 2014
- March 2014
- February 2014
- January 2014
- December 2013
- November 2013
- October 2013
- September 2013
- August 2013
- July 2013
- June 2013
- May 2013
- April 2013
- March 2013
- February 2013
- January 2013
- December 2012
- November 2012
- October 2012
- September 2012
- August 2012
- July 2012
- June 2012
- May 2012
- April 2012
- March 2012
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
| M | T | W | T | F | S | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Nov | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
| 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 |
| 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
| 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 |
| 29 | 30 | |||||
OK. I admit. I have been caught purchasing club size boxes of
Depends at Costco. Not for me but my aging mother.
If you’re part of the 29% of Americans who are now in the
care-giver role, you probably have, too.
And soon, there’s something more for you to read than
incontinence websites.
HIP.’
This is my first stab at a novel, dealing with the mixed
emotions that come with caring for an aging parent.
While I spend the school year in China, I spend the summers near
Charlevoix, Michigan, as my mother’s caregiver. It’s a 24/7 job, helping her to
the john, replacing pea-size hearing aid batteries, giving her medicine and
feeding her a steady stream of molasses cookies. Though there’s a part of me
that wishes I was sipping umbrella drinks in Phuket instead of dealing with
pill boxes and Depends, there’s a bigger part that dreads the day I no longer
fill them or smell them.
I’m sure your family isn’t that different than mine . You deal
with tough decisions regarding where your parent should spend their golden
years. Are you a bad child for crying uncle and making plans for your mother to
live in an assisted center? If you can only afford half of her medication, do
you go for the pain meds or the heart pills? Do you let your dad call your
mother every night and talk for twenty minutes, even though she’s been dead for
years?
There aren’t any easy answers.
Or take this morning. I wanted to give my mother a bath. She
went down in the bathroom, her soapy body as slippery as a greased pig. And
since she has the muscle tone of a bag of marshmallows, my mom wasn’t much
help, causing me to slip as well. I was terrified and thankful that she didn’t
crack her head open on the tile floor or toilet—or me, either.
It took 45 minutes of strategic planning to figure out how to
get her up, not wanting to call the fire department.
So I ask myself, what do I want to be the last memory of my
mom: seeing her having a fatal fall in front of me or watching her make crafts
out of raisins at an old folks home?
Anyway HIP can help you smile and realize you are not alone.
This upbeat story, told by a streetwise caregiver, can help you laugh at the
things that could drive you crazy as well as bring you to Bangkok and back for
whirlwind adventure.
You can get a peeview of HIP at smashwords soon!
June 26th, 2013 at 10:00 am This sounds like a great book Ginger. I cared for my mother in my house, then my sister did before we put her in a nursing home. It made for hard couple of years. I look forward to reading this.