Dear Aging Parents, Please Don’t Keep Things From Us
In a single day recently, I found out my dad had been admitted to the hospital and my mom had received a serious diagnosis. Friends, I am pleading…
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aging parents
The Father I Knew is Already Gone, But I’m Not Ready to Say Goodbye
My father is gone, but he hasn’t died. His situation is purgatory—what many families experience when someone they love suffers from a…
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Even Though My Mom Can’t Remember Me, She Knows Me
When I tell someone my mom has Alzheimer’s, the first thing they usually ask is, “Does she know who you are?” There was a time when I could…
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I’ll Hold My Mother’s Hands as Long as I Can
These are the hands that held me as I took my first breaths. The hands that fed me and changed my diapers and rocked me to sleep at night. The hands…
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Please Don’t Leave Me Yet, Mom
The sound of my phone startled me as I started down a dirt path in search of momentary solitude. I groaned, irritated by the interruption, pulling it…
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My Parents Are Aging and I Worry
I woke suddenly in the wee hours of the morning, unsure if it was the pounding thunder that had startled me awake or the pounding of my heart. I sat…
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I’m in the Sandwich Generation—and I’m Exhausted
“Maybe you can do it after soccer season?” I actually said these words out loud. To my mom. About her hip replacement. My 78-year old…
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Cherishing Our Bonus Time As My Mother Fades Away
When we were kids, it was that magical time after dinner when the fireflies were just beginning to dance and the street lamps were starting to buzz…
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Please Live Forever, Mom. And Also Swedish Death Clean.
Moms of the world, You are loved. We cannot imagine a day when we won’t have you on the other side of the phone to celebrate the wins and…
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The One Thing Alzheimer’s Cannot Take Away
Alzheimer’s is a cruel disease. It takes folks to lunch and then robs them blind—of the memory of what they just ate. It takes them to…
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