Dementia really sucks the life out of family caregivers. Even with my younger sister living at home with my mother, we needed at-home care during the day until I could get there to stay between 3-6. After a while, we prayed for her to fall. I know how that sounds, but we knew that if we could just displace her from the home, we could transition her to an assisted living/memory care facility.

It turned out that my mother fell one afternoon after the at-home care left at 1pm. A school meeting made me an hour late, and I found her on the kitchen floor. The rescue squad people moved her to her bed for me, but we took her to hospital later where it was determined she had broken her hip.

After rehab, we transitioned her to a facility. I won’t lie. None of the transition was easy, but we knew that we had gotten her in to a better situation for what turned out to be the last 3 years of her life. She died at 90, peacefully, in a most caring place.

We also dealt with unique and horrific issues with each of my father, my mother-in-law, and my father-in-law. The end for each came as a blessing, but that blessing demanded a price of much pain and sacrifice. We were fortunate that we really only had to deal with two at a time.

In closing, there’s no easy answer. You just do the best you can and content yourself that whatever decisions you make are grounded in the purest form of live.