When my mom entered the nursing home, among the admission paperwork and medical history, was a questionnaire about her likes and dislikes, family background, career, where she’d lived, etc.  Also, the dieticians wanted to know about any food allergies, of course.  They also wanted me to list her favorite foods and those she disliked.
Eventually, they asked me to put together a small photo album with pictures of family members, as well as her most recent home and girlhood home, if possible.
All of this helped the staff know my mom better and hopefully care for her better.  I felt this showed …read more

“Mary, she nearly broke the aide’s arm when we tried to get her under the shower,” the nurse at the nursing home related.  “Your mother doesn’t want to go near the shower.”
 I thought about it, then explained to the nurse that Mother didn’t have a shower in her home, had never had one wherever she lived.  She might have used one the few times she stayed at a motel, but she used a tub or “sponge bathed” most of her life.
Then I realized Mother may have been living, in her mind, her life before a tub.  When she was growing up, …read more