📋 What a Natural Disaster Taught Me About Caregiving (AARP Article)

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FROM THE ARTICLE - SEE ARTICLE FOR MORE!!!

No Power, Water or Internet. What I Learned Caregiving for My Mother During Our 13-Day Power Outage.

Here’s how I kept my elderly, infirm mom – and myself – sane post Hurricane Helene.

By Sara Murphy, AARP. Published October 29, 2024.

It's a normal weekday at the mountain home outside of Asheville, North Carolina, where I’ve lived with my 80-year-old mother, Mahin Murphy, and 78-year-old stepfather for a decade. As my mother’s primary caregiver, I’ve just paused my work as a freelance journalist to make an appointment for her at a local spine clinic to address severe back pain. When I learn that we need her referring physician to schedule an MRI first, I shoot an email through her patient portal.

As I do that, Mom, despite her pain, is ripping, cleaning, and chopping leeks for soup. A retired physician who immigrated from Iran in 1979 and had to complete a second residency while learning English, she is the most determined person I’ve ever known. She’s had to survive colon cancer in her 40s, brain surgery in her 60s, and countless other health problems. As osteoarthritis has steadily taken away her ability to stay busy through knitting and jewelry making, she’s recently turned to cooking instead.

https://www.aarp.org/caregiving/home-care/info-2024/what-i-learned-hurricane-helene.html