TOPICS OF NOTE:

What Mary learned about our need to live a life filled with love at any time of life
Shifting from long-distance to local caregiving
Realizing the reality, dread, sadness, and responsibility of what was ahead
Raising children to thrive while watching a parent decline
How the emotional process of her mom's Alzheimer's diagnosis was different than her dad's Cancer
What she wishes she had done more of when caring for her mom
Finding ways to connect with a person in the late stages of dementia
Ways of dealing with losing a parent
Hitting a wall due to the stress and loss of connection of caring for a person living with dementia
Control as a coping mechanism
The Clicker! And how Mary channeled her inner MacGyver with Krazy Glue, wires, clamps and batteries
Involving her school-aged children in the care of her mom
Stepping into her mom's reality
Legal guardianship
Feeling resentment and losing it after finding support
Delayed grief and the surprising moment that let the emotional floodgates open
Retrospectively taking stock of caregiving accomplishments
How memories of her mom have shifted two years after her death

In AFTER THOUGHTS Colleen shares her feelings for Mary and her mother because of the important roles they played in her life and the life of her father. And then she shares her thoughts on love as it relates to persons living with dementia.

QUOTES OF NOTE:

“We all want that feeling of being loved and wanted and needed and seen and looked for.”

— Mary Dowling

“You will survive.”

— Mary Dowling

“If you try to pretend like you can do it all and it’s effortless and you’re so on top of it and you’ve got it all together, you’re going to crash and burn.”

— Mary Dowling