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...
Death and dying
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...
Caregiver Guilt: How We Second-Guess Our Impossible Choices
…A dying aunt; a budding son: My aunt Marion, who had no children of her own, was in the hospital dying of cancer. While...
Hospice Care: Help During End Stages of Life
“No one needs to die in pain.” That is what the social worker told me as I signed the papers that would put my...
What’s the Difference Between Palliative Care and Hospice?
Most people have heard of hospice care but they mistakenly think that it’s just a way to help cancer patients be more comfortable at the...
Music Therapy Can Increase Quality of Life for Those in Hospice
For many, music from certain eras can bring back memories of better times. For others, music soothes anxiety or gets them pumped up for...
The Emotional Impact of Losing a Loved One to Dementia
“Carol!” The hospice nurse’s voice was quiet but urgent. I instinctively knew what was happening. She had been shifting Dad’s position so that he...
Caregivers: Just Do Your Best and Then Let It Go
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...
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...
