by External Article | Jan 8, 2023 | 24/7 Caregiving, Art, Caring for a Parent, Generation X, Long Distance Caregiving, Short Term Caregiving |
In March 2020, Lori traveled to Florida to help Audrey move into an assisted living facility, a plan that was immediately upended with the arrival of nationwide lockdowns. In the next three months, Lori lived with Audrey in her apartment, sleeping in the same bed with...
by Guest Author | Sep 9, 2021 | Caring for a Parent, Generation Z, Grief |
When my mother had brain surgery to remove a tumor in May 2020, I thought that was the most difficult thing that could happen during the pandemic. I thought once she recovered from that my caregiving role would be over and I would go back to my life as a “normal” 20...
by External Article | Jul 23, 2021 | Care Work Library, Caring for a Parent, Long Distance Caregiving, Long Term Caregiving, Millennial Generation |
My older sister and I eventually decided to involve our aunt to help figure out a way to save her. We got together, talked about it, and approached my mother – she was barely responsive to us, so we decided we would get help for her regardless. The next day, my mother...
by External Article | Jan 13, 2021 | Care Work Library, Caring for a Parent |
When you are born, Daoist lore says, three spirits enter your body. Depending on who you ask, these spirits are sometimes called the Three Corpses and sometimes called the Three Worms. My cousin—whose parents are both Taiwanese, and whose Taiwanese-ness is salient to...
by External Article | Oct 30, 2020 | Care Work Library, Caring for a Child |
A weird throat pain, bad breath, an inflamed tonsil. A reassuring GP saying it can probably wait a few days, but it wouldn’t hurt to go to the ER. I’m slightly reassured when we get to the emergency room. At first. It has the advantage of instantly drowning our...
by Guest Author | Jun 4, 2020 | Caregiver Stories, Caring for a Parent, Millennial Generation |
How we dealt with uncertainty, And a virus in our life, For fifteen years. And emerged as CONQUERORS. Science met Spirituality… with a tad bit of humour! Life was going on for me, like it does for most twenty something year olds. I grew up as the youngest and most...
by External Article | Apr 10, 2020 | Care Work Library, Caregiver News, Caring for a Parent, Generation X, Long Distance Caregiving, Long Term Caregiving, Millennial Generation, Occasional Caregiving, Sandwich Generation, Working Family Caregivers |
Even before the coronavirus, caregiving had become Sade Dozan’s every day. About a year and a half ago, her parents moved close by to help Dozan, 30, and her husband, Michael, with their infant daughter in New Jersey. But soon after, her 69-year-old mother suffered a...
by External Article | Mar 13, 2020 | Care Work Library, Caring for a Parent, Long Distance Caregiving |
I live on the East Coast; my mother lives on the West. Sometime in the next couple of weeks, I have to decide whether I will visit her in April, as planned—and, if I do, whether I’ll bring my kids along. It takes two planes and anywhere from 12 to 18 hours, depending...
by External Article | Feb 26, 2020 | Baby Boom Generation, Care Work Library, Death & Dying |
Hammer is dying. At seventy-nine, she has lived with cancer for thirteen years and has exhausted all available treatment options. She has spoken publicly, repeatedly, about her impending death, both as an artist reflecting on her creative life and as an activist for...
by Guest Author | Jan 9, 2020 | Caring for a Parent, Caring for a Romantic Partner, Generation X |
In 2014, I had just gotten remarried. The future looked so bright. Rewind several years before that and my life had fallen apart. Everything that I had built up came crashing down when I went through a painful divorce. But through a lot of work and with faith, I...
by External Article | Sep 30, 2019 | Care Work Library, Caring for a Friend, Caring for a Parent, Death & Dying, Generation X, Long Distance Caregiving, Occasional Caregiving |
No one ever uses the word dying, even if it’s the correct word to use. We think this denial of the obvious, of the facts, is for Hannah’s benefit—if we refuse to see how bad it is then maybe she won’t see it either. But no one sees it or feels it more clearly than...
by External Article | Aug 11, 2019 | Art, Care Work Library, Finances, Grief |
A young widow who lost her husband to cancer nearly drowned in grief and medical debt. Now Fumiko Chino is a cancer doctor who sees her own tragedy play out in other patients. Too often people are underinsured and financially burdened by the cost of cancer care. Faced...
by External Article | Jul 15, 2019 | Care Work Library, Caring for a Friend, Generation X, Grief |
She’d found out she had leukemia right about when I started trying to get pregnant. Her cells divided. My cells divided. Our selves divided. I’d taken her to the E.R., that very first night, when she felt woozy, really woozy, scary woozy, but, even as she lay in a bed...
by External Article | Apr 25, 2019 | Care Work Library, Caregiver Stories |
David Green is a history teacher and a father to a 16-month-old girl who was diagnosed with cancer. The Mae Jemison High School teacher didn’t have any more sick days that he could take to stay with his little girl, Kinsley. His daughter is getting treatment 100...
by External Article | Apr 18, 2019 | Care Work Library, Caring for a Parent |
Q: My mother is in her late-50s and has been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. She tried one round of radiation, but now she is resigned to her fate and doesn’t want more treatment. She is still mentally alert and vivacious. I disagree with her decision, but I...
by External Article | Apr 12, 2019 | Care Work Library, Caring for a Parent, Millennial Generation |
Q: my father has been undergoing cancer treatments, making my dependency on my friends ever-more urgent and emphasized. Is it better to just not expect anything of anyone ever? Am I overreacting to some of my friend group’s lack of effort to be there for me in my time...
by Tedx | Apr 2, 2019 | Caring for a Parent, Death & Dying, For Friends & Family, Grief, Millennial Generation, Working Family Caregivers |
Schutt spent four years as her mom’s primary caregiver, writing songs about the dark and the light of her mother’s journey from diagnosis to death of ovarian cancer. Kate wants us all to know how to show up for our grieving friends so they don’t feel alone with their...
by External Article | Mar 20, 2019 | After Caregiving, Care Work Library, Caring for a Parent, Working Family Caregivers |
Annabelle moved home for the last few weeks before her mother died of cancer. She focused on the details, while her brother took care of a lot of the emotional labor that Annabelle wasn’t capable of. During and after her mom’s illness, she threw herself...
by External Article | Mar 7, 2019 | Care Work Library, Caring for a Sibling |
Growing up, Robin Melamed and Tara Liebnick, now 45, were typical twins. They shared the same group of friends and more often than not, they completed each other’s sentences. In college, they joined the same sorority. Then, in their thirties and within a matter of...
by External Article | Mar 1, 2019 | Baby Boom Generation, Care Work Library, Caring for a Parent |
Sue Smith is the host of Homerun on CBC Radio One. In December, her mother was diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer that has spread to her brain and elsewhere in her body. When someone you love gets sick, everything stops. In one instant your world changes from...
by External Article | Feb 15, 2019 | Care Work Library, Caring for a Parent, Millennial Generation |
What’s it like to be 31 and moving home with your parents? What happens when that temporary move becomes more permanent after your mom is diagnosed with cancer? Once I moved in, every day was filled with so much overwhelming uncertainty that I immediately turned...
by External Article | Feb 1, 2019 | Baby Boom Generation, Care Work Library, Caring for a Parent |
Sue Smith, the host of CBC Montreal’s Homerun, recently returned to work after an extended absence to deal with the sudden illness of her mother. My Mum is 78 and up until a few weeks ago was in pretty good shape; going to the gym and then out for coffee with...
by External Article | Jan 22, 2019 | Care Work Library, Caring for a Parent, Caring for a Romantic Partner, Generation X, Grief, Working Family Caregivers |
When Marjorie’s husband had a health scare, it was her father who looked it over and asked her the hard questions. And when it was confirmed that his cancer was terminal, it was her father who came to support her. Without much debate or conversation my dad...
by External Article | Jan 10, 2019 | After Caregiving, Care Work Library, Caring for a Romantic Partner, Finding Meaning |
Coming down from taking care of someone with cancer is like an addict going cold turkey. Every day I took care of Dan, we followed the same unbearable routine; the last weeks were especially traumatic for me. It’s been three years since his death, and I think I...
by Guest Author | Nov 19, 2018 | Baby Boom Generation, Caring for a Romantic Partner, Finding Caregiver Support, Finding Meaning, Long Term Caregiving |
My toughest job with the most responsibility is as my husband’s caregiver. It’s not what I signed up for. I’m not looking for pity; it’s not something I had experience with. It was not part of my retirement plans, but something I was very motivated to master. How do...
by Guest Author | Nov 17, 2018 | Art, Caring for a Grandparent, Caring for a Parent, Death & Dying, Finding Meaning, Long Term Caregiving |
01 Do I Know You? R.L. Gibson 16” x 20” Xerography (mixed media) 2014 02 But Now I See R.L. Gibson 16” x 20” Xerography (mixed media) 2014 “In one year, my father died in a crash due to complications of diabetes; I had two surgeries reserved for women 20 years...
by External Article | Oct 23, 2018 | 24/7 Caregiving, Baby Boom Generation, Care Work Library, Caring for a Romantic Partner |
If late-life love cannot make us invulnerable to everyday misfortunes, what conceivable purpose does it serve? What month is this, what year? It is the season of sorrow, the year of grieving. Old lovers know that love does not conquer all, that our intimacy cannot...
by Harriet Hodgson | Aug 23, 2018 | 24/7 Caregiving, Baby Boom Generation, Caring for a Romantic Partner, Finding Caregiver Support, Health & Fitness, Long Term Caregiving, Wellness |
“Take care of yourself.” I’ve heard this advice more times than I can count and try to follow it. After being diagnosed with stage one endometrial (uterine) cancer and having a hysterectomy, I follow this advice religiously. For about three months I had been feeling...
by External Article | Aug 18, 2018 | Care Work Library, Caring for a Parent, Generation X, Grief, Short Term Caregiving |
Why do so many of us feel guilty after the death of a loved one? A writer is overcome with guilt for causing her mom’s death — and suspects her dad blames her, too. She fell while walking the writer’s dog and broke her hip. A year later, she died of...
by Guest Author | Aug 17, 2018 | Caregiver Stories, Caregiving Relationships, Caring for a Romantic Partner, For Friends & Family |
In 2014, I married my love, Rebekah. I was 35 and she, 25. Seven months later, my dad was diagnosed with stage four stomach cancer. Two months after that, at the age of 26, my new wife was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer. One oncologist, the first one we...
Recent Comments