Bless the Caregivers

I have caregivers on my mind after writing about my grandmother over on It’s All About Family.

While driving home from church yesterday (maybe it was because of church?), I said a prayer for the CT Transit bus driver waiting to take a right turn with his bus at a very annoying corner. There he was on a Sunday morning, probably already out for a few hours, and who knows how many more to go.

Today, I stopped at Walmart on my way home and I saw a young man hoisting a folder up wheelchair to put in the back of his car. I looked to the interior and there was an elderly man waiting for him. Grandfather? Paying customer? Later, when leaving the store an older woman was pushing a carriage with a toddler and telling her husband with a can in his carriage to wait and she’d get the car to pick him up. Was the young child her granddaughter?

These caregivers, people taking care of family members, neighbors, or even strangers have my deepest admiration. It is not easy.

Caregiving for my mother when I was 27 was short and there was no traveling involved. Years after that was caring for my dad. It was helpful that his primary care doctor was at the assisted living facility. He was in a wheelchair and it was easier to get him up into my SUV than it was to lower him into a car! After he passed away, I took on the grocery trips and doctor’s appointments for my aunt, my dad’s sister. That started when I got a call from the school she worked. She became ill and was being taken to the hospital and I was her emergency contact! All of that involved a change to my routine, fitting something in, taking time off from work, or having my family fend for themselves while I was caregiving.

I don’t say all that for any pats on the back but I’m realizing how important it is to have “people”.