They Call Me Caregiver Holly

Crazy times make you do crazy things. What's crazy about this time? Just a world wide pandemic forcing whole nations to go on lockdown. I could probably count on one hand the times in my life I had said the word "quarantine" before last week. Now it's part of the daily vernacular. Along with social distancing, shelter in place, stop the spread, flatten the curve, hoarding, toilet paper shortage, ventilator, self isolation, n95 mask. Oh man. Once I started I couldn't stop. And then having to explain to Mom every day that we can't go to the grocery store or go get her hair cut because of "The Virus". It's all so surreal but not panicky. It should feel more panicky. It doesn't. Now would be a good time to mention that our immediate family now includes Mom MacDougall. We moved in at the beginning of the year to take over her care as well as manage the house. That's actually the reason I'm here, sitting at my computer at 12:40am trying to put words together after not putting words together for many moons. Our experience is unique. I mean, most 30 somethings (I can claim that for 1 more year) are raising kids, not raising kids and caring for aging parents with dementia. I've been encouraged to write about it. I've hesitated because if you know me at all you know I like to find humor in things. And, well, people do funny things when they can't remember stuff and I in no way want to come across as mocking or disrespectful. Hopefully, together, we can laugh about the crazy, cry about the hard, smile about the wonderful, and wonder about the truly fascinating. This journey with Mom has it all. But most of all, it has lots of love and learning. I'm excited to share it with you