Meredith Aubrey Writes
I did this twice. Alone. Badly at first.
I'm Merdith. I am an only child. I cared for my father through six months of decline before he passed. Currently I have been supervising my mother's care for over six years. There is no sibling to split this with, no handbook, and a lot of learning things the expensive way.
My Story
The thing nobody warns you about is that caregiving is two jobs wearing one coat. There's the tender part — sitting with someone you love while they get smaller. As if that isn't enough, then there's the administrative part: pharmacies, portals, forms, deadlines, insurance people who hang up on you and alas - the caregivers..
The second job eats the first one. You spend the visit on your phone fighting a prior authorization instead of holding her hand. That's the loss I want to spare you.
I wrote down everything I eventually figured out — the binder structure, the questions I learned to ask, the conversation openers that didn't blow up, the products that were actually worth buying — and turned it into the system I would have paid almost anything for in year one.
My faith carried me through this, and you'll find it woven quietly through the pages: short reflections, a verse where it belongs, an acknowledgment that honoring your parents is real and costly work. It's the tone, never a sermon.
