Squeezing Good Out of Bad
Is your life filled with lemons? Perhaps your life is fine, but someone you know is going through hard times. For example, two families in our small group have been forced to sell their homes in this down market. Another has a son in jail. I just learned today that my brother-in-law was laid off last week. And my brother expects to lose his job by the end of the year. My mom has been sick since Thanksgiving. Yep, times are tough for GenSandwichers and just about everyone else. And by all projections, getting tougher.My friend James Watkins has written a simple little book to offer hope and humor in the midst of the lemons. He shares the top ten ways to squeeze the good out of those life-puckering situations. And Jim is a great guide since he's felt the squeeze of cancer, unemployment, family crises and chronic nose hair. Join him on the journey of making lemonade with hope and humor. You can buy a hard copy or download an electronic version at his website OR, if you’re unemployed, he’s offering a free download!
Labels: book review, challenges, sandwich generation
Monday, July 07, 2008
If only I had known…
Jane Gross in today’s NY Times echoes the woes of Gen Sandwichers everywhere. We learn by doing and by making mistakes. Unfortunately, it’s our parents who pay the price for our learning curve. Every day, every phone call raises a new challenge, a new dilemma that I don’t know how to solve. Sometimes I guess right; sometimes I’m wrong. Hopefully I won’t make a serious error in judgment, either medically or financially. I want my mom’s final years to be as carefree as possible, but when her only backup is me, it’s pretty tenuous. So far I haven’t blown it too badly, but every day is a new challenge.With her recent fall, my brother and I made some mistakes that we didn’t know until later. We signed up for LifeAlert when we meant to call LifeLine. We contracted with a homemaker agency and later learned they could only do 20% homemaking. The rest needed to be personal care. We already had an agency providing PT and bath assistance. What Mom needed was homemaking services. We had to cancel that contract and hire an individual to help with homemaking. Minor errors, but frustrating.
I also run into continuing challenges with medical care. Fortunately, I have some limited knowledge, but never enough, it seems. She has some conditions that her primary seems to take pretty lightly. I’m never sure when to press for a referral and when to trust him. Like Jane Gross, I long for a gerontologist who will manage her care. And I pray that the mistakes I make will be minor…
How do you handle the uncertainties?
Labels: aging parents, challenges, finances, medical care