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By Carol February 19th, 2012
I’ve been poking around the blog this week pulling out a few posts to use as a basis for a submission to a local writing contest. In the process I came across a post that I wrote about a year after Dad’s death. I like it so much that I think it’s worth re-posting. So here it is
Exploring the Gifts of Caregiving
Caregiving can be hard. Really, really hard. As Bill has said, it can feel a lot like rolling a boulder up a steep hill only to have it plunge back down to the bottom over and over again. I have also heard caregivers describe the job as an endless roller coaster ride or a long slog through a muddy marsh in the rain.
Part of what makes caregiving so challenging is …
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By Carol February 7th, 2012
We can solve just about any problem if we talk about it together
I heard myself saying this to Bill the other day after we had resolved a potentially serious malware attack on our computer. As I think of it, this seems to be one of the great truths of our relationship. Recently our challenges as a couple have gone a bit deeper than a computer glitch. Retirement is a momentous experience in the life of anyone who has worked almost every day of their adult life as Bill has. We both knew it would be a big adjustment but I don’t think anyone can know exactly how retirement going to impact them until it happens.
For a while things went pretty smoothly between us. Bill got a part time job, we adjusted our …
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By Carol January 22nd, 2012
Years ago I could only use a yellow legal pad for my writing. If I didn’t have my yellow pad, I couldn’t write. Then a determined Bill coaxed me to try word processing. Now I love the ease of editing, the spellchecker and the way words flow from my fingers onto the page. I especially like Microsoft Word, a program that I always thought was too complicated for me until we started blogging.
Today, with my right hand encased in a stunning purple cast, I can’t use my cherished Microsoft Word. The best I can do is to hunt and peck enough to edit this.
And what is this?
I am “writing” this post via an iPad app called Dragon Dictation. Since I had joint replacement surgery on my hand almost two weeks ago, …
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By Bill January 5th, 2012
Hand Surgery
Carol had hand surgery today. She has been bothered by pain in her right hand for about ten years, so she finally mentioned it to her doctor. The doc got some x-rays, said there is some arthritis in her wrist that was bone to bone, and surgery will fix it.
So, today after about four hours at a surgery center Carol is home with her hand and arm in a cast with a prescription for some pain medication. All is well so far. So what’s the big deal? Something doesn’t work too well anymore, so get it fixed. That is what we do as we get older. I am doing it as well. I’m sitting here with my titanium knee. My friend has a titanium knee as well, and his …
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By Carol January 3rd, 2012
Bill and I had not heard that our friend Barbara was in hospice and close to death. We learned of her passing from another friend who makes a habit of studying the obituaries every Sunday. Despite her long-standing heart condition, I had expected Barbara to live for many more years. After all, her mother had survived past 100. Barbara had been her mother’s long-distance caregiver for several years.
We attended Barbara’s Memorial Service a few days before Christmas. While the snow fell softly outside the chapel windows, Barbara’s children, grandchildren, friends and loved ones sang and played, recited poetry and shared memories of Barbara and her multifaceted life. It had been a journey of exploration and connection. We were struck by how many of her friends and associates had met Barbara unexpectedly on a …
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