Why So Many Long-Married Couples Die Close Together
While death rarely brings pleasant feelings, from time to time we’ll see a story about death go viral on the Internet because it touches...
Grief
Hospital Delirium: Cognitive Decline After Hospitalization
In the expected course of treatment, people are hospitalized because they are ill. Then, barring a terminal condition, they are released because they are...
A Common Caregiver Confession: “I Secretly Wish My Ill Loved One Would Die”
…Most caregivers would have been devastated by the death of their loved ones before they took on this role. But when a care recipient...
Hindsight Can Be a Blessing or a Curse for Caregivers
They say hindsight is 20/20. But things from the past that may seem “clear” to you now can still be distorted by difficult emotions—especially...
When a Loved One with Alzheimer’s Doesn’t Recognize You
Watching a loved one move through the stages of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) can be one of life’s toughest and most heart-breaking challenges. If we...
Coping with the Stigma of Dementia
People stare. Most are not unkind, they are just curious. But when someone “different” from the norm becomes part of their environment, they often...
Minimizing Grief for a Surviving Spouse with Dementia
Deciding whether to tell someone who is cognitively impaired that their spouse has died is a serious and often recurring struggle. Dementia and death...
Getting Over the Guilt of Placing a Loved One in a Care Home
If we could control events, most of us would never want our elders to be so sick that they need the care of a nursing...
Caregivers: Let’s Avoid the Second-Guessing Trap
Like most adults, I’ve second-guessed many of my own decisions. While most were made with my own future in mind, that all changed when...
Reconciling Grief & Relief When the Loved One You Cared for Dies
When my mother died in a local nursing home, my “career” of visiting this exceptional facility nearly every day for almost 15 years ended....
