LongDistance
Caregiving
By Marie Bradby
U
ntil the late 1990s, my trips home to visit my parents and my sisters and brothers and their families in Northern Virginia were like little vacations. We went to see the Alvin Ailey Dancers at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. We attended family weddings and anniversaries, and we went to the beach on the Outer Banks. But as my father’s health began to decline, and then my mother’s, my trips home focused on helping them, and I became a long-distance caregiver, trekking back and forth between Louisville and the Washington, D.C. area for several years. It’s the hardest, yet most rewarding, job that I have ever done. It never got easier. I was grateful for the opportunity to care for my parents in their own home and share such personal time with them. I’m grateful for my siblings, who provided the bulk of our parents’ care. PAGE 32>>
30 Spring 2020 / TodaysTransitionsNow.com
“START [PLANNING] EARLY. IT WILL MAKE LIFE EASIER AND TAKE AWAY SOME OF THE STRESS.” — JANICE BALDON GUTTER