Caring for Aging Loved Ones
It is challenging to discern how much help someone needs when it seems impossible to have enough information to go on and routine aging can mask new negative health declines that are not routine at all.
Most people my age talk about marriage or parenting or dating or topics not safe for work, but as an old soul who lives around a lot of older people I am engaged in and in awe of what each of us have to face and overcome as our journeys reach the latter half of our lives. I see a number of middle aged and senior individuals going through dramatic life changes in order to care for an aging loved one. I feel like this is a conversation that no one is sufficiently having in an openly social, affirmative manner.
First, the transition to someone aging and needing help is not always some smooth predictable decline like a lot of mainstream entertainment portrays. There are instances where every change could mean a million different things. Maybe Uncle Phil is grumpy, sometimes to the point of physical aggression, because he checked out emotionally and is grieving the loss of being a breadwinner and family rock or maybe he is in early stages of dementia and his brain is exaggerating the neurological…
