Getting Older

Sadly everyone does it. My mom is now taking care of her parents, my granny and my papa. My PaPa had a stroke last October and has needed a great deal of care since then. My granny has been declining in health for quite some time, so she could not take care of him when he came home for good from the nursing home in January (I think). So my mom has become their caretaker. Only, she does not live with them. She visits them several times throughout the week and makes their meals for them. For a long time, my PaPa could not have truly solid foods - only blended or mashed foods, but now, he can eat most things safely. Anyhow, the past few months there has become more and more of a need for full time care of my grandparents. My mom is single and retired, so to speak, so she can help them. But then she doesn't have anyone to relieve her, and it is a thankless and tiring job that she does for them. She would really like to spend more time with my kids, but she is not able to do that as much. When she does visit me or my sister, I think she probably does it for her sanity even though maybe she should stay all the time with my grandparents. My dad passed away 3 1/2 years ago, and her brother has to work. At times, my mom, a widow herself, needs a lot of help she doesn't get either (yardwork, home repair, etc. - whatever happened to taking care of the widows). It seems very hard to do the things you should do in today's world because it is so busy.

My grandparents have not responded well to sitters, and their money will run out very quickly if they had to have one regularly. It is just a sad situation that there is not something to help out aging people to be able to afford the nursing home or assisted living or something. Sunday, my granny fell and broke her hip in one place and pelvis in two places. I just think they will definitely need constant care now - maybe my mom will move in with them or something. When you are thinking about how many kids to have or how to save what precious little money you have, you need to think about what you will do at the end of life too. I guess I don't know a good answer for this situation and wish someone knew some good thoughts about it.