series: Love, Resilience, and Renewal

A CAREGIVER’S NEW PATHWAY FORWARD

Love, Resilience, and Renewal

Caregiver Transitions #24

Dementia caregivers must prepare themselves for loss. Unlike caregiving in other circumstances like injury or illness with expectations of a full recovery, dementia rarely has a good outcome. The end should represent a new beginning for caregivers...
Little Paradise on the Hill

Love, Resilience, and Renewal

Lucky Son-of-a-Gun #23

When a spouse passes, as mine did after a long illness with Alzheimer’s disease, the time comes to go through their personal things. Making decisions about what to do with them is often difficult which makes it easy to put off as long as possible. Such was the case with me...
Oil painting on canvas by Gerald Lloyd Wood titled: “Beyond.” This piece was selected to inspire caregivers to hold onto hope for what lies beyond. Possibilities are endless for those who adapt to change by re-inventing themselves.

Love, Resilience, and Renewal

Planning Ahead #22

For peace of mind, caregivers should make arrangements in advance for unforeseen emergencies. For example, health, family or business issues could require you to be away. Unless someone trustworthy can temporarily step in, your person will need...
Acrylic abstract expression painting by Gerald Lloyd Wood on canvas, “Transition Tribute.” Courtesy of Mr. Taylor Joshua Wood private collection. Thought for the day: Giovani Segantini said, “Matter must be worked on by the mind to have any lasting value.”

Love, Resilience, and Renewal

What’s Your Story? #21

Author, Elizabeth Byler Younts, inspired me to write about this topic after reading her book, Seasons. It honors the memories of her grandmother’s remarkable life as captured in interviews. She describes...

Love, Resilience, and Renewal

Alzheimer’s Care Takes a Village: Story #20

My wife, Linda, 78, passed peacefully in 2019 after an 11-year journey with Alzheimer’s disease had repurposed our lives. She was adopted at birth so our first clue of potential dementia risk surfaced following a successful search for her birth family in her mid-forties. That search revealed...
Acrylic abstract expression painting on canvas, “Eye of the Storm” by Gerald Lloyd Wood. Thought for the day: “A tranquil sea is not always to be. Brave the waves and secure your ship in Paradise Harbor. With new stores below, we bid you ‘bon voyage’ as you sail away for destinations unknown. Smooth sailing!”

Love, Resilience, and Renewal

Love Is Where It Finds You: Story #19

Love isn’t always planned but one of those joyous, unexplainable things that some are lucky enough to experience.
Acrylic abstract expression painting on canvas by Gerald Lloyd Wood titled, “Fire and Ice.” (Private collection of Mr. Stephen Ross Wood.) Thought for the day: “Solutions to problems may be found in new paradigms. Logic is out the window with dementia. Thus, newfound creativity in ADLs (activities of daily living) is required!”

Love, Resilience, and Renewal

Living Our New Normal: Story #18

Reality today brings those chickens home to roost when her brain is like a camera without film.
Abstract expression painting titled, “Abstract # 101 by Gerald Lloyd Wood. This was his first acrylic painting. (Courtesy of personal art collection of Ann F. Wheat.) Thought for the day, “Diversity has the beauty of a masterful painting.”

Love, Resilience, and Renewal

What Day is This? Story #17

Every day, she asks what day and what time is it, several times each morning.