Week-1: The Seasons of Caregiving - Embracing Spring
Although our lives may resemble the cycles of nature, it won’t necessarily align or follow the same timeline. For example, depending on where you live, Spring can start around March or April. According to the Farmer’s Almanac, the first day of Spring happened this year on March 20, 2025 at 5:01 a.m. EDT, in the Northern Hemisphere while Autumn was starting in the Southern Hemisphere. Imagine being able to predict the seasons of your personal life, down to the minute! But it doesn’t work that way.
My Spring in caregiving began in June of 2020. I had just begun teaching for the Alzheimer’s organization and mentally preparing to care for my brother around August or September. But his current caregiver at the time, our mom, had an emergency that not only required her to take a break but also faced the reality that she needed to be cared for herself. Which, in turn, meant I would be starting something new - caregiving - sooner than I had planned.
Fortunately, our family started having these tough, crucial conversations about how to help our mom with her cancer and take over caring for our brother, Clint, living with early onset Frontotemporal Dementia. I just needed to reframe the hand that life was dealing me and shift my plans to an earlier date. I had a good 30 days to get Clint settled in, if we can call it that, before mom moved down. I took advantage of that time alone for Clint to become familiar with his new surroundings, set up appointments with all new doctors, get familiar with his routine and what would become my new routine. I made sure to make a list of all of his medications, the amount and frequency he was taking, but then also realized or discovered significant side effects of some of those medications he was experiencing. I developed relationships with each of his doctors (primary and specialist) to ensure a clear line of communication was open. With each appointment I kept a journal of what was said and if needed, shared information between doctors where they weren’t necessarily communicating with each other. I was the go between. I needed those notes from my journal.
My other siblings assisted mom with her move to my place. With “Spring” still in season, once mom was moved in, I then started with her routines and establishing new doctors and scheduling appointments, as well as transferring insurance policies to both of their new addresses. She still had a home she left behind, so there was also ensuring those bills were being managed and paid. Mom was able to assist with some of these things, as she was still able to perform all of her daily activities without assistance, unlike Clint. Although I was successful in this Spring season, my “Summer” was approaching fast.
Spring is your opportunity to prepare for what’s coming. Ensuring both of my loved ones routines were in place, from medical to insurances to estate planning, provided me comfort in knowing I would be ready to focus on their daily needs. I realize this may not be everyone’s experience, as season’s of Summer or even Fall can rush in, and you are forced to do everything at once. For those of you in that predicament, I want to encourage you to lean into support groups. All support groups. But for those of you that still have time, I encourage you to take advantage of this time and opportunity to prepare. You never know how quickly your life will be turned around, if not, turned upside down.
