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I have spent a good part of my adult life in a caregiving role. First: we cared for my husband's parents for five years. They lived in our home. My mother-in-law had Alzheimer's and that is the very worst case scenario in terms of caregiving. After a five year hiatus, we care for my parents for seven years They also lived in our home., My dad was a gad about and we took him everywhere with us. My husband and I had virtually no private life. Now I am caring for my husband. We are isolated by his illness because he is very disabled now, making it almost impossible to go anywhere. His illness is terminal. Frankly, covid, quarantine - all of that - is secondary to caregiving. We were isolated and alone before Covid hit the world. The main change for us was the fact that we had no caregivers to help me for 5 months at the beginning of the pandemic. Now caregivers are back, and so my life as caregiver is very similar to previous spans of time when I performed a similar role. Of course, the person I am now caring for is my spouse. That does make things different - Grief as I face his slow decline is something I did not experience when taking care of parents and in-laws. Covid is just another caregiving challenge for me - not something new under the sun.
July 27, 2021