My father’s illness began to take hold of him about eight years ago, so much of what I will write about here happened some time ago. When time is relevant, I will usually give some indication in the post. But a large part will be current, reported more or less on the day or within the week of occurrence. Dad will turn 92 in a few days, so he has been on this path for nearly 10% of his life. My mother is 87, still reasonably healthy and alert, though beginning to struggle with her memory recently. My older brother, after a life deeply troubled by psychosis and alcoholism, passed away suddenly from a stroke in November. He would have been 58 this month.
I am 53, not married, living in my parents’ home for the last year, helping mother manage father and sister. I moved back to their home in southern Florida from Maryland where I’d had a job in publishing. Before those 8 years in publishing I worked in hospitals and private practice as a Psy. D. Prior to my return to FL, I spent 3 years flying back and forth from Maryland every six weeks. I gave up my apartment in MD and resided there in a small hotel with reasonable rates, putting my household in storage for all that time. Eventually, I had to spend more time in FL than the publishing company liked (though they were marvelously tolerant for a very long period), and I was laid off when the financial crunch came. I’ve been living off savings since then, and fortunately my expenses are low. I’ve looked for work but, now in a small town, and in the current recession, there are very, very few jobs in this area. This is not an easy life, but I felt early on that the right thing to do was to help my family, and I still believe that. I decided to to make the best of the situation, whatever may come.
Evan M.