Archive for The Gathering Place "The Gathering Place" is a web community where people can gather and make new friends, share ideas, enjoy a few laughs and learn about many interesting things together. It is a safe place where friends can correspond with each other about what they love.
Death of caregiver, decisions concerning dementia patient
A friend is dealing with a hard situation. She has gone to help her sister whose husband died suddenly. He was the primary caretaker for his elderly mother in law who has dementia. Many years ago he had promised her husband when he was on his deathbed, that he (the son in law) would never put her into a nursing home. I don't know if anyone else made that promise, and it may have made before the lady was showing signs of dementia.
I don't think either of the daughters would be able to give the mother full time care, even sharing the responsibility. They live about 150 miles apart. There are also many decisions to be made about finances, property, etc, and in the midst of this, of course there is the shock and grief.
I'm sure they would all appreciate your prayers.
God's Warrior
And....I will be praying for this situation. That is a tough decision "this day in time" as families are so scattered and can't pull together caring for someone like they could in the old days. It was my responsibility caring for my grandmother for many years. I finally had to heartbreakingly give in and put her in a nursing home (because her care became "over my head") very near us so we could check on her daily. We often made surprise visits there just to make sure things were still ok when the staff wasn't expecting us. It killed me to do it but it was the only way possible at that time. We must all face difficult decisions in our lives and it is something that we should never do without having the Lord as our guide. That is the most important thing to do in such cases and our Lord will direct our path in the best possible way if we will just trust in Him and give the situation over to Him.
