Relative is the word I am working on today… I’m not quite smart enough to address the theory of relativity. Not feeling a comparison post where it is all relative. But I can talk about a relative of two.
I have mentioned my Dad’s failing health and just yesterday evening I got a call from his caregiver and he had taken a fall. Shot my heart right up into my throat and I drove there as soon as I could. Luckily he did not get hurt other than a scrape to his elbow.
Now I live about 15 minutes away so I had called my sister to get there to try to help lift my Dad up off the floor, as she is less than 5 minutes away. It just amazes me how two siblings can be so different. She is a wiz with handling Dad’s finances, but when asked to sit with him for a short while… I get back a “I am not a nurturer like you.” It is her Dad… how hard can it be to just TALK to him for a half an hour or so.
This fall and his two hour wait on the floor (he had his cell phone, but couldn’t figure out how to use it) for someone to get him hits my heart hard. I don’t know how much more I can physically and emotionally do. My sister said on the way out, “Might not be able to stay here much longer.” And a part of me is afraid she is right. I hate the thought of putting him in a nursing home, but am afraid he needs more care than assisted living would give him.
This makes me think of my grandmother who took in her own mom and took care of her in the end of her life and still kept the books for my grandfather’s business and ran the household perfectly, still having time to volunteer at the church even. How could she do all of that and I am having troubles just making it through the nights?
I love my Dad and hope and pray he can stay home a little while longer. But fate may have other plans. Do you have a relative you care for? It is tough job, and I am learning not everyone can do it.
Written for Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (FOWC) – relative
Leigha Robbins 