It’s a complete 180 learning curve going from journalist / author / daughter to caregiver / nurse / nursing aide / doctor / mother.

And what a challenge it can be.

Every morning, we have an aide who manages Mom’s hygiene, bathing her and washes her hair when she wants it, straightening her bed, transporting her from the bed to the wheelchair to her recliner and then says good-bye. I often hate to see her go. It’s like wait, where’s the adult in the room?

Hospice also provides supplies and equipment. Sometimes they explain these contraptions. Sometimes they don’t. Hospice also gives families a social worker, a spiritual counselor, a doctor, an on-call nurse available twenty-four-seven and a volunteer for a couple of hours a week.

But every other hour is on me.

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