My Golden Oldies National Tour

Written by on October 20, 2008 - 3 Comments
Categories: My Caregiving Journey, Odds & Ends

By the time you read this post, I will have traveled cross-country to the East coast of the U.S. I am traveling with one Golden Oldie, my aunt, age 90, and three cousins (4 awesome women!) to visit two other Golden Oldie aunts, ages 90 and 95, and attend a special family event, a bar mitzvah.

I definitely have mixed feelings about making this trip. I really love the aunts, cousins and family friends we will be visiting and am looking forward to being together. But I also feel guilty about leaving my Mom.

Although we made the trip as short as we could, I will still be away from her longer than I’d like. On the other hand, while I can’t ask her (due to her late stage Alzheimer’s disease) if she minds my going, I feel certain she would want me to go and enjoy this time with our wonderful family, with whom we have always been very close. Can you feel my push-pull?

While I’m away, my Mom will be cared for with love and diligence by the personal “village” I have created for us: my dear husband will step into my shoes as family caregiver, the 24/7 board & care caregivers, the hospice nurse, and her doctor (if need be, hopefully not).

I have made a promise to them, and to myself, not to worry while I’m gone, and to thoroughly focus on and enjoy the people and activities on this trip!

Through the magic of computer technology, I am able to pre-load a few posts that will appear while I’m AFK (away from the keyboard). You may also enjoy poking through the different categories in the sidebar to the right to find an older post that catches your eye and read it, too.

I won’t be checking or answering comments while I’m away, so some may end up in moderation. Please don’t let that stop you from sharing your thoughts, because I’ll approve them upon my return. (And I’ll also reply to your comments then!)

Hope to see you here when I get back!

And who knows? Maybe I’ll have some fun family tales to tell you about from our trip.

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The popular Family Caregiver Communication Class will resume in November. In the meantime, here are links to the first three classes in the series:

Part 1: Think Before You Speak

Part 2: Speaking Easily About Difficult Topics

Part 3: Dealing with Pessimistic Aging Parents

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3 Responses to “My Golden Oldies National Tour”

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  1. SpaceAgeSage -- Lori
    October 20, 2008 at 2:22 pm

    Best wishes and have fun. Sounds like your mom is in good hands.

  2. Linda Abbit
    October 29, 2008 at 9:16 am

    Hi SpaceAgeSage,

    As I write now, I’m back and my Mom did fine while I was away. And I nearly kept my promise not to worry 100%. Of course, visiting the other Golden Oldies in our family brought my Mom to mind, so I have to admit I did think of her often, but it wasn’t with worry each time — just lots of happy family memories for the most part. And sadness that she couldn’t be with me on the trip.

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