Image: sxc.hu

To my post, Design a Touch Quilt for Alzheimer’s Patients, one of my readers pointed me to Eva’s Loving Touch Lap Quilts.  Here we learn about the Alzheimer’s patient’s need for tactile or sensory stimulation and comfort. 

This reminds me how much my aunt seemed to need the sensation of something comforting to rub her hands over as she sat in her rocking chair.  My mother, in her Alzheimer’s years, enjoyed quilts and reminiscing about making them in her childhood and helping me establish a quiltmaking business during our country’s Bicentennial years.

If you don’t have time to make “touch quilts,” as I describe in my post, you also can find those specially designed for the person with special needs, whether a child or adult  at various places including  The Alzheimer’s Store , mentioned in my other article.

Perhaps you have quilting friends who make these, too.

Post from: Blisstree

“Touch Quilts” for Parenting Your Parents

I agree.  I wasn’t prepared, and it seems so strange at first. However, I learned to enjoy Mother and Auntie as they journeyed through their Alzheimer’s world. There were frustrations, disappointments, but rewards, too. My daughter and her children’s lives are richer, as well, by caring for these ladies. The memories are often bittersweet, but this was a stage in their lives that I hoped we made easier for them.

Some tips on how to prepare yourself:

• Once I realized I’d be caregiver for Mother and Auntie, I took advantage of workshops and lectures offered by a local nursing home.  This gave me insight into various aspects of caregiving.
• I found a support group.  Actually in my case, it was my neighbor who was caregiver for her great aunt.  We discussed the challenges, the joys, and discovered resources.
• I tried to learn all I could from reading and workshops. and look at the world through  Mother and Auntie’s eyes.  They taken ill with Alzheimer’s before there was much on the Internet.  Today, check out Internet resources for information.
• Start your own blog;  visit other web sites and blogs to learn how others are coping.
• Communicate with family members as much as possible and enlist their help.  Discuss the situation and your feelings.

How are you preparing for parenting your parents, spouse or elderly family members?

Post from: Blisstree

Preparing for Parenting Role Reversal

We don’t think, when we’re raising our children that we may become caregivers for those who once cared for us.  We don’t make plans for this and it often hits unawares.

Auntie became my responsibility after my mom could no longer care for her.  She lived with my parents for more than a year when another relative couldn’t cope with Auntie’s Alzheimer’s forgetfulness and wandering.  Then Father died and Mother’s Alzheimer’s became more pronounced.

Because Auntie was a widow with no children, she became my responsibility.  I suppose I could have ignored the situation, but somehow it was something I couldn’t do.  During most of the time she was my responsibility, she was in a nursing home, so I didn’t have the “hands on” care I did with Mother.  But making decisions when she was ill or in the hospital, keeping in touch with nurses (I lived 275 miles away), and visiting whenever I could did become my role.

I cared for Mother in her home, in our home, and was responsible for overseeing her care in a nursing home for 8 years.  During this time I was helping my children with grandchildren.

However, all of them, no matter what age or generation, brought rewards to my life midst any frustrations.  Realizing that parenting encompasses more than caring for children will help you as you assume parent and elder relative care.

Post from: Blisstree

Parenting More Than Our Children