Outskirts Press, INC.

Caregiving comes with heartfelt devotion and heartbreaking inner turmoil.

Caregiving, especially for an elderly family member, is a silent epidemic afflicting millions of people in the United States. While the caregiver is taking care of a loved one or an aging parent, who is taking care of the caregiver? Whether you are a baby boomer in the core of the sandwich generation or a person facing the day-to-day, demanding responsibility of caring for a loved one of any age with a disability or failing health, this book is for you. It captures the depth of every human emotion. As our own mothers aged, we welcomed them to live in our homes with hopes of caring for them until their final day. We shockingly woke one day to realize the mothers we loved had evolved into mothers with strange thoughts and behaviors that we were not fully prepared to understand and deal with. We found ourselves adrift in unknown waters in a boat with a hole in it. As our rose-colored glasses shattered along with our hopes of being perfect caregivers, we were thrown into a world of chaos of which the unfortunate outcome would be the loss of someone we truly loved. Our individual stories embody two raw confessions of the reality caregivers are suddenly and overwhelmingly consumed with, while caring for aging mothers. Our goal now is to reach the desperate people who’ve been thrown into this turmoil and are trying to navigate this unfamiliar world and come to terms with their conflicting emotions. The perspective we bring does not come from a professional standpoint but from the heartbreaking and demanding front lines of being the sole caregiver. These are our stories of love and commitment tested until the last breath and longer.