November has been an eventful month. In late October I discovered my Mom, 89 and legally blind and almost deaf, had almost burned her house down when she was cooking some hamburger and fell asleep. I have known for a long time she shouldn't be by herself but she is stubborn and insisted in taking care of herself. As long as she was sound of mind I let her be. But when I visited her that day I knew the time had come to seek a different living arrangement for her.
I contacted my two brothers and my younger one, who has power of attorney, came from Savanna to assess the situation for himself. We looked into private care and that was way too expensive and an assistant living facility was out of the question. Mom just needed someone to monitor her medicine and make sure her clothes were clean and she was feed but the assistant living facility wanted $3500 a month just for a room with another resident plus additional expenses totaling over $500.00 a month. One can definitely get better care and facilities on a year long cruise at less than half the cost.
With an quickly aging population there needs to be a better alternative: maybe a nice ground floor apartment complex with a couple of resident nurses and some nurses aids to look to the peoples needs. Something like a Holiday Inn with medical care. I don't think it should cost over $500.00 a month. Poor people living on Social Security can't afford what these nursing homes want to charge and many deserve a better end of life living situation.
Fortunately for Mom my youngest brother was willing to take her in and provide the care she needs. Not every parent is so lucky.
The last two weeks she was in her own house I drove down to see her most every day to take care of her. The only day I didn't go was Sundays and I left early on Wednesdays to make it home for church.
After she moved I went back everyday to clean her house and to clean the refrigerator and the freezer. Several struggling families were blessed to receive food and a few other things to help them meet their families needs. I saw that some items that belonged to others were given back to them, cleaned and secured her home. I'll have to go back from time to time to do yard work and other things that might need to be attended to. The only things I packed up were her collection of dinner bells. When Mom passes and all the relatives hit the house her bells will be a prime target for those wishing to grab a little something for themselves and it took a lot of tender loving care to wrap and pack her huge collection.
Most of her bells were common bells but there are quite a few that fall into the $40.00 and up range making her collection worth several thousand dollars. Most of her other stuff can be disposed of by an estate sale but if and when Mom can come back home (this is where she wants to be during her last days) I want things as much like things were when she lived here.
The saddest part of the whole affair is I have been her caregiver for the last sixteen years and she left on my birthday. Having her go was harder than I thought it would be,
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