Minding Our Elders

Father’s Day as a Caregiver: Remembering Dad Before Dementia

This Father’s Day, I’ll have fond memories of my dad, as will many caregivers and adult children. The juxtaposition of the past and present...

Our aging loved ones often repeat the same stories over and over again. As our patience wanes, we blame the repetition on memory issues,...

A recent question brought back memories from my early days of caregiving. The member wrote, “My 81-year-old father still thinks he can do handyman...

Note: This is an older article so the types of anesthesia have (in some cases) changed. That said, it’s clear that undergoing a procedure...

Watching out for elders has always come naturally for me. I grew up close to my grandparents, and during my teenage years, my paternal...

Get used to it – the guilt, I mean. The incessant phone call thing was just one of the many games I had to...

Dear Carol: I feel like I’m failing everyone because I can’t do everything well. I work full-time, and my kids are in middle school,...

For many families, spring or early summer is a time to shake off the winter blues, deep clean their homes and focus on getting...

Note: I was interviewed by A Place for Mom about caregiving books, so I chose just some of my favorites (can’t name them all)....

Hiring in-home care for my elderly neighbor, Joe was quite an ordeal. The company we chose and their professional caregivers were great, but the...