Grateful Caregiver

​ Before we talk about anything else, I want you to answer this honestly: 👉🏽 If you needed help TODAY—no planning, no preparing, no trying to figure it out yourself—who could you call? Do you have a name? Or did you have to stop and think about it? Because as caregivers, we can become so accustomed to being the person everyone calls that we don’t always stop to ask: Who can I call? I had to learn this personally. When I was caring for my mom, I was her only child. So naturally, I felt like a lot of the responsibility belonged to me. Appointments. Phone calls. Questions. Decisions. Medications. And then there was still my own life—my husband, my daughters, work, home and everything else that didn’t stop just because I had become a caregiver. I remember during my mom’s treatment there were medications that had to be picked up every week. I was working from home, but working from home certainly didn’t mean I was always available. Some days my schedule was packed. I couldn’t j...

Is this you? You make the appointments. You remember everyone’s medications. You check in on your parents. You support your spouse. You answer the late-night phone calls. You comfort everyone else while quietly carrying your own worries. Then someone asks, “How are you?” and your first response is, “I’m fine.” But are you? As caregivers, we become so focused on caring for everyone else that we often forget we need care too. I know this because I’ve lived it. For years, I cared for my mother after she was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer. I became her advocate, her organizer, her encourager, and her daughter all at the same time. There were days filled with appointments, difficult conversations, and decisions no one ever prepares you to make. I wanted to make every moment count because I knew our time together was precious. When my mom passed away, I thought the caregiving had ended. Today, I help my husband as needed , and I work alongside my sisters to help care for our aging...