When We Become the Carers
Supporting Our Ageing Parents with Grace and Strength
Hello lovely readers,
I hope this newsletter finds you well and happy, as ever.
In this newsletter, I’m talking about a situation that many may find themselves in. It’s the role we sometimes acquire but never thinking in our earlier years that we may get to this situation.
And that situation is where many of us find ourselves stepping into a role we never quite expected — becoming carers to our ageing parents.
It’s something that creeps up gently, often while we’re juggling work, family, friendships, and our own hopes for what this chapter of life should be.
I know only too well how deeply this reality touches so many of us. It can be a time of gratitude and closeness, but also of exhaustion, guilt, and quiet heartbreak.
Until recently, I was a “kind of” a carer for both my parents. Not that my parents needed that much care, but they had physical ailments which meant they weren’t as mobile as they had been. My problem was managing them and making sure they weren’t doing anything that made them unsafe.
Fiercely independent, my parents would often be involved with buying things that they didn’t need or it was obvious they’d been “sold” to and possibly swindled out of money on goods that weren’t suitable for them.
And, I bet I’m not the only one.
So in this issue, I want to pause and talk about what it really means to care for those who once cared for us — and how we can do it with compassion for them and for ourselves.