Saturday, October 26, 2013

Time to Care: Families find more options to keep elderly parents at home

By Jason Lesley
Coastal Observer

Dot Matthews of DeBordieu says the time has come for her to care for her 97-year-old mother.

Jo Cerami suffers from dementia and needs her daughter and son-in-law, John, now.

She has gone from being the caregiver to the recipient. After her husband died in 1976, Jo moved in with Dot and John in Florence to help care for their seven children. “It was me who needed her at that time,” Dot said. “I had my own company, working 24/7. John was working. We needed help. I would stop in at her house, and she’d be crying. She had nothing to do and didn’t have a whole lot of friends. I asked her if she would come and help me so there would be somebody there with the kids when they got home from school. Now she needs me. Turnabout is fair play.”

Dot is granting her mom the wish that almost every aging person has: to remain at home. It hasn’t been easy. “Dementia comes on very slowly,” Dot said. “I didn’t realize what it was. My friends noticed it before I did.”

Continued at:

http://www.coastalobserver.com/articles/2013/102413/6.html






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The Unsecret Garden


With no secrets to conceal

A garden will reveal

Each facet of its glory

Every color being seen

Among the requisite green

Describes a detail of the story


Having nothing to hide

As her mood coincides

With the rites of the season

Respectful of the way

Her colors fade to gray

Not questioning the reasons


What seems to be conclusions

Is just shedding past illusions

Of scenes she left untold

The palettes of her history

Reflect no shades of mystery

So to not entrench her soul


No decisions must she make

To be real or to be fake

Cannot hide from her true color

While accepting without doubt

The new life that will sprout

The plan of nature's mother


To embrace the coming sequel

Which may or may not equal

The heritage of its past

With faith but not with envy

Her calm awaits the frenzy

When the time is right at last


Giving no excuses

Nor blaming past abuses

When her lushness is no longer

Assuring to return

With new lessons she will learn

To make her message stronger


She paints another chapter

While telling of its rapture

Makes no secret of its glory


This garden tells a story.


Author: Michele Crabtree

April 24, 2013

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