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 My family faced a tough decision a few years ago. My mother, whose Alzheimer's disease was progressing, needed placement in a memory care unit for her own well-being, as well as my father's. He especially wanted to hold out as long as possible. We all knew the placement would be inevitable. The question was When?
We were wrestling with some of the saddest realities of our lives and facing difficult decisions. When Hospice entered the picture, we gained the enormous benefit of a case manager.
The case manager helped us to understand that our mom had more to gain from being moved while she still had some level of function. Arriving before her decline was too advanced, and still able to participate, she would make a better adjustment to her new world. Overall health was likely to improve with all of her needs being met in an environment entirely geared to her situation. And her family could become her family again, and not the full-time caregivers.
We came to look at our dilemma in a new way. It didn't make the placement process easy by any means -- that was very painful. But we no longer saw the placement as giving up. Instead it became a choice for quality, or abundance. It helped us to support each other and get through that tough transition.
Abundance is rarely found in a pure, unfettered form. If we are open to it, look for it, and embrace it, we can face our toughest challenges with new light.
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