November is the time to recognize family caregivers who devote countless, unpaid hours to providing essential personal care to relatives and loved ones who cannot care for themselves. If you're a family caregiver, you are not alone. More than 65 million Americans are taking care of aging or disabled family members. The value of all that combined unpaid caregiving work adds up to an estimated $375 billion! Family caregivers balance the demand of jobs, careers, and raising children to provide care, comfort and compassion to their aging or disabled loved one. The cost of caregiving not only impacts a family's budget, but the stress can take its toll too. Thank you to all those family caregivers! Your community appreciates you. Need to learn more? Check out these resources on caregiving.
Alzheimers books should help everyone involved through this incredibly difficult time. That's why Alzheimer's Through the Stages shows you what you can do for your loved one--and yourself--every step of the way. This book's detailed descriptions of all seven stages of the disease are both helpful and comforting. With each section divided into three parts--what to expect, what to say, and what to do--this is one of the easiest to use Alzheimers books for caregivers.
From cherished memories of weekends she spent as a child with her indulgent Nana to the reality of the year she spent "ladysitting" her now frail grandmother, Lorene Cary journeys through stories of their time together and five generations of their African American family. Brilliantly weaving a narrative of her complicated yet transformative relationship with Nana--a fierce, stubborn, and independent woman, who managed a business until she was 100--Cary looks at Nana's impulse to control people and fate, from the early death of her mother and oppression in the Jim Crow South to living on her own in her New Jersey home.
Cary knew there might be some reckonings to come. Nana was a force: Her obstinacy could come out in unanticipated ways--secretly getting a driver's license to show up her husband, carrying on a longtime feud with Cary's father. But Nana could also be devoted: to Nana's father, to black causes, and--Cary had thought--to her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Facing the inevitable end raises tensions, with Cary drawing on her spirituality and Nana consoling herself with late-night sweets and the loyalty of caregivers. When Nana doubts Cary's dedication, Cary must go deeper into understanding this complicated woman. In Ladysitting, Cary captures the ruptures, love, and, perhaps, forgiveness that can occur in a family as she bears witness to her grandmother's 101 vibrant years of life.
