A way to take care of the elderly who’d become demented, whom you love dearly, to give yourselves some breathing room too, from the Newspapers, translated…
My godfather, after dad died, would take a walk to our house to sit and chat for a while on a nightly basis, said that he’d been walking long, was tired, and needed some water, with the real motives of looking after all of us for his close friend, and, at around seven in the evening, I’d always find that shadow by the entrance of the streets. It’d continued for nine years unstop, unless there’s a typhoon, or that the rain was too big, we’d heard his thick Hunan accent by the dials of our watches.
At first, he’d begun, repeating what he’d told us the night previous, and would wear his suit, his ties as he’d gone on the strolls, one day, my godmother called with that worry in her voice, “Your godfather left in the morning, and hadn’t come home?” it was, already close to eleven o’clock. And, we’d, found him, on a small pass into the fields about ten kilometers away, he’d looked lost, and mumbled to himself, “Where’s my house? Where is my house?”, he’d, become demented.
My godfather has three sons and a daughter, they’d quickly made arrangements for taking care of him, the in-laws of the eldest daughter who lived close to them are deceased, her children are studying away, there is a room saved for the parents, she’d ushered them into live with her. During the daytime, they’d taken my godfather to the nursing daycare centers, so my godmother can be relieved of the duties of taking care of him, and the three siblings on the holidays and weekends would take the kids home to spend some time with grandma and grandpa, my godfather’s house was rented out, with the earnings to pay for the caretaking that his daughter and son-in-law needs to take care of the parents, and the fees for the daycare center, the three brothers took on.
This arrangement had kept everybody’s life right on track, as close to the track as their lives once were, and it’d given the primary caretaker room to breathe, the trials of having a demented elderly family member is beyond others’ imaginations.
It’s been two years now, at seven in the evenings, I’d rung on his doorbells, and, there he was, inside, and although he no longer recognized me, even forgotten, himself, but, I’d still loved him, like I always had.
And so, this is how much care, goes into taking care of a demented elderly, and, there are countless unpredictable things that might happen with the demented elderly person, and so, the families are always on edge, which is why the caretakers needed time to themselves, so they don’t strain themselves out completely, and, having this sort of a rotation in shifts in caretaking, is a great way, to spread the pressures of caretaking more evening.