💼 Rebuilding Your Career After Caregiving (AARP Article)

[Winter2025VA]

FROM THE ARTICLE.

Training, Tenacity and Turning Points: Betty’s Path Back to Work.

After managing her husband's cancer care, Betty Lou Rekdahl managed her own comeback.

Betty Lou Rekdahl had a good life. For nine years, she worked alongside her husband, Chris, at his event planning business. Together, they helped couples plan their wedding celebrations at the historic La Cañada Thursday Club near Pasadena, California. As their success grew, Betty managed the business’s hectic event schedule.

But all of that changed in March 2022 when Chris was diagnosed with glioblastoma — an aggressive form of brain cancer. “It shocked us to the core,” says Betty, 53, who suddenly found herself supporting Chris through chemo and radiation treatments, not to mention managing doctor appointments, filling out forms, and handling piles of medical bills. Overnight, she went from Chris’s business partner to his full-time caregiver.

USE THE LINK BELOW TO READ THE ARTICLE.

https://www.aarp.org/aarp-foundation/our-work/income/back-to-work-50-plus/betty-lou-rekdahl-back-to-...

[Winter2025VA]

While scrolling Instagram, Betty saw an ad for AARP Foundation BACK TO WORK 50+, a free program that equips workers over 50 with skills to compete in today’s fast-changing job market.

She enrolled and learned crucial strategies, including:

[1] How to customize her résumé for each job.

[2] How to use AI tools like ChatGPT to practice interviews.

[3] How to network with people she knew.