Feb 22
Check on your friends who are caregiving
There have been numerous articles written about caregiving, here on Medium and other places as well. I don’t think I have much to contribute to the content, but I do have a word of encouragement to the friends of the caregivers. Check on your friends. Whether they have been caregiving 2 days or 200 days, they probably feel like they are in a tunnel, and they would like to know that someone is thinking of them.
That’s it. That’s the word. Your “checking in” might look different than someone else’s checking in. That’s okay. Just letting them know you are thinking of them and giving them a space to vent if needed is golden.
I teach college students, and one of the classes I get to teach is a senior capstone course. As part of one of the sections in that course I have the students listen to this NPR piece. It is an “old” piece, but it still resonates with students very nicely, and leads to some good discussion and reflection: Always Go To The Funeral : NPR
As you can gather, I think the life lesson of “always go to the funeral” is a good one. The next time I teach this course, I am going to add “check on the caregiver” as a key life lesson as well.
