Caregiving--Do We Ever Stop?

I see I skipped writing on this blog the whole month of March. Perhaps that was because I was kept company the whole time by a long-time friend who stayed with me, while she looked for more work and some housing she could afford. It actually turned out to be a blessing for me, because she does professional housecleaning, and my house got a thorough spring-cleaning while she was there!

But now, I find myself in North Carolina, helping my brother and sister-in-law take care of her 94-year-old mother, who's requiring more care since she got out of the hospital last week. They have full-time jobs that need their attention as well. So, I'm just a stand-in caregiver when they're not here, in addition to helping out with some of the household and kitchen chores. I'm just glad I'm available and able to do it.

A few months ago, my granddaughters, wondering why I still attended caregiver advocacy meetings, told me after their grandpa was gone that I wasn't a caregiver any more. Well, I reminded them that we're all caregivers in some sense, when we care about others.

Sometimes the duties are more visible than others, but the bottom line is that, as Christians, it's our duty and privilege to always care for others in real, tangible ways. Even when I'm just caring about caregivers through my participation in a caregiver advocacy group, it counts.

When I'm needing more care in a few years as I age, I hope I can bless in some way the person(s) taking care of me. It's just what we caregivers do. Caregiving never ends, because God's love doesn't either.

At times, Dean was almost as much my caregiver as I was his!