It is not uncommon, when coping with great losses, to have a well-meaning friend, acquaintance, or family member say the wrong thing at the wrong time. They may tell you that you need to […]

What is an executor?

The will maker can appoint one person alone or several people together to act as the executor of their estate. In broad terms the executor is […]

Grief is never easy but for the caregiver, who has witnessed the slow deterioration in health and subsequent loss of independence of someone they loved, grieving can be extra […]

When I woke up this morning, I was crying. I had been dreaming about my father (who passed away at the end of September). I recall that in my dream, he was not alive and was propped in a […]

If you are caring for a relative or person who has lived with you for a year or more, it is possible to claim them as a dependent, as long as you provide more than 50% of their […]

Many of us will gladly take Mom to her doctor’s appointments, administer medications, and check in if the need arises without a second thought. But with millions of loyal children caring […]

Being a caregiver is more than just cooking a meal or two. You are essentially taking over not only their personal care, but often times their financial care as well. So it is important […]

Keeping track of finances takes time, attention and energy at any age. In the case of older adults, health challenges such as memory loss can make it difficult to manage their financial […]

Looking for someone to attend to the needs of your aging loved ones can be an intense process. Once you have found the perfect setting with the appropriate level of attention and a […]

If you are an employee and a caregiver, you are one of over 14 million people in the United States trying to stay afloat in a tumultuous sea of shifting personal and professional […]

How do you make sure you’ll keep your job when you need to take time off continually to care for a loved one?

The responsibilities of caring for an elder loved one are similar to a […]

There may have been a pressing reason you decided to become a home-based business owner. You may have had home obligations that required your attention. For example, you might be a […]

At work you are an executive, a leader among leaders, looked to for critical direction. At home or in your extended family you are a caregiver, depended on for critical care. That’s a […]

My father-in-law, Ken, had Parkinson’s disease since the time my husband, John, and I first met. The way John described how he moved across country to be near him after the Parkinson’s […]

“How can I get my dating partner to be kind and understanding about an illness we have in the family? I don’t know how to handle this.”

A serious illness can drive some people away. […]

Lack of self-kindness can lead to the loss of identity, the blues, symptoms of depression, or a medical diagnosis of depression. You don’t need any of these things at this time of life. […]

I have written several times about how gardening is a wonderful activity to share with an aging loved one. It’s an easy way for them to participate and feel that they are making a […]

This is something I truly feel compelled to speak about because it’s a reality for so many of us. How do we keep giving care to our loved one when we ourselves are burned out and need a […]

If you are a caregiver you are probably already familiar with the effects of stress. With the upcoming holidays it is almost a sure bet your stress level will go up.

You may […]

Medicine has come a long way. There are so many treatment modalities to help someone with a life-threatening disease. Unfortunately, many of these modalities do not completely cure; […]

Imagine getting a hot flash while struggling to assist your mother with dementia to use the toilet.

As you hold her and lower her slowly onto the toilet seat, the fear of falling […]

Caring for an elderly or infirm member of your family can be an exhausting and challenging experience. For caregivers, it’s not uncommon to feel isolated and alone with the challenge, […]

The caregiver process… taking care of an ill loved one… is an up and down ride minute by minute. There are good days when your loved one is coherent, not in a lot of pain, and […]

It’s human nature to hang onto two basic hopes – the hope of overcoming illness and the hope of delaying death. However, in many cases the reality is that your loved one faces a […]

A long time ago, I suffered from migraines (then I got a divorce and they disappeared, but that’s a totally different story).  When I was being treated for these migraines, one of the […]

It’s natural to enter a long-term relationship with expectations. And one expectation most of us have is that our spouse or partner will remain relatively healthy. […]