When my parents moved into this house back in 1956, one of the neighbors brought my mom some lilies and lily bulbs from her garden. Over the years, they grew from just the two or three little bulbs that she'd been given into a lovely little patch of lilies that bloomed year after year.
However, a few years ago, they stopped blooming. Thinking that they were done, I had the bulbs dug up. The first year after I had them removed, there were no lilies. But over time, they started blooming again.
There aren't many flowers, but it's like they're saying, I'm still here. Mom's lilies are just like her, always reminding us that that she's still here.
As family caregivers, it's so easy to get so caught up in what we have to do for a loved one because of what an illness or injury or simply old age has brought to our loved one that we overlook what we still have.
I know I've said that before, so excuse me if I'm being redundant. But Mom's lilies reminded me of what I have. When we started our journey through Alzheimer's dementia, I had no idea what I was going to do or how I was going to do it.
Looking at our journey 14 years later, I see two really tough women who were determined to live fully despite what Alzheimer's dementia was taking away from us.
Mom's lilies reminded me of that.
Our journey through Alzheimer's dementia has been a really, really, really hard life experience, but it has challenged me to grow in some really unimaginable ways.
If life handed me a challenge before I took this journey through Alzheimer's dementia, I would ask myself, how am I going to do this? But taking this journey has taught me to reframe that question and ask myself, what do I need in order to meet this challenge?
Being a family caregiver is all about problem solving so that you can say to the world, I'm still here. My encouragement for you this week is to look at a challenge and say to it, I'm still here.
Dr. Sheri L. Yarbrough is an author, caregiver, and founder of Praxis Senior Care-Giving Solutions, a consulting business that provides care-givers with practical and easily implemented strategies that can be tailored to meet their individual care needs.
View Dr. Yarbrough's weekly blog on all things caregiving from a caregiver's perspective.
Listen to Dr. Yarbrough's Podcast: Straight Talk for Giving-Care.
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