This is all very familiar. And so very helpful for people navigating similar waters. We first moved my mom to independent living in 2019. From there she progressed to assisted living and now memory care, each time following some sort of health crisis. Each time I've thought how, briefly, I was an expert on whatever kind of facility I was currently researching. You're doing the smart thing and sharing that knowledge. Well done. And the fake cats! I have one in my closet that I bought for my mom a while back, but my kids and husband declared it was creepy (which might have had something to do with the fact that I turned it on and put on a chair at the bottom of the stairs without telling anybody and it scared the bejeezus out of them 😁)They said she wasn't ready to accept it yet, having just had to revoke her much loved cat. But she's receded so far now, and we're all about comfort measures. I think the timing maybe right. Thanks for sharing all this.
Oh wow Tara! You are in the thick of it. You are so right about how everything keeps changing. The moment you feel like you have a manageable situation it changes. That was one of the hardest of the many hard things! And the cat. Creepy is the word! But also,,,kind of entertaining. They have probably gotten better since 2016. You'll get a laugh next week so I hope you keep reading. Thanks so much for commenting and I am sorry you are going through this. It's so hard. A sense of humor is a must!
This is all very familiar. And so very helpful for people navigating similar waters. We first moved my mom to independent living in 2019. From there she progressed to assisted living and now memory care, each time following some sort of health crisis. Each time I've thought how, briefly, I was an expert on whatever kind of facility I was currently researching. You're doing the smart thing and sharing that knowledge. Well done. And the fake cats! I have one in my closet that I bought for my mom a while back, but my kids and husband declared it was creepy (which might have had something to do with the fact that I turned it on and put on a chair at the bottom of the stairs without telling anybody and it scared the bejeezus out of them 😁)They said she wasn't ready to accept it yet, having just had to revoke her much loved cat. But she's receded so far now, and we're all about comfort measures. I think the timing maybe right. Thanks for sharing all this.
Oh wow Tara! You are in the thick of it. You are so right about how everything keeps changing. The moment you feel like you have a manageable situation it changes. That was one of the hardest of the many hard things! And the cat. Creepy is the word! But also,,,kind of entertaining. They have probably gotten better since 2016. You'll get a laugh next week so I hope you keep reading. Thanks so much for commenting and I am sorry you are going through this. It's so hard. A sense of humor is a must!
Thanks, Edie. Best of luck to you and your family. I just posted a poem today about my mom and how conversations have changed through her illness. If you're interested: https://open.substack.com/pub/connort/p/my-side-of-the-conversation?r=dvsrv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web