"Mirror, mirror on the wall". . .

Retired social worker
Reluctant caregiver
Irreverent soul-searcher


Dilemma
I’m waiting for the joy of my retirement.
I’m longing for some travel and some fun.
Delaying has become a sad requirement.
A testing of good daughter or good son.

I’ve joined a club of millions where the members
Suppress a dream for golf or gym or gin.
We spend our days just hoping Mom remembers
Or wiping dribble from our Father’s chin.


I won’t bore you with a lot of statistics, but I can tell you that I fear our economy will never recover! For every 5 million people with dementia, including Alzheimers, it is estimated that there are 10 million unpaid caregivers. My mother is one of those with dementia. I am one of the caregivers. There is no time to go out for a movie, to shop, to eat out, or watch HDTV on a new wall set. And our Moms and Dads no longer make shopping lists! Walmart may be the only survivor of this recession. We caregivers know that we can buy Depends, applesauce, plastic serving dishes and Valium (for ourselves), in a 40 minute one-stop weekly whiz-through at the super store.

This is not a poor-pitiful-me story, although I am all those things, but a look into the last room of my mother, and ultimately the last room for millions of us. Just in the U. S., a dilemma with the proportions of the entire population of Forida is upon us! We need to start planning.