Our family lost our mother in March of 2019. She was an amazing woman who never let anything rise…read moreabove her top priority of caring for her family, especially my father, Bill.
My father is a disabled veteran with crippling arthritis and knee problems and a multitude of health issues and needs. He is a diabetic that requires insulin, has lymphedema that requires daily treatments, needs medications four times per day and after a two serious falls, required someone to be with him while he transferred from chair to walker, walker to bed, etc.
My father was from a generation where his wife cooked, cleaned, raised us at home, gave us baths at night, did the laundry, went shopping and had dinner on the table when he got home from work. As we grew up and moved on, my father grew older and his world became smaller as his ailments and medical needs became his focus.
My mother took care of him with tireless effort, literally, up to the moment that she died. When she passed, he was lost. With our family spread across the globe (literally) and having families of our own, caring for my father was an impossibility given the degree of care that he requires.
We were referred to Visiting Angels who came to meet and evaluate my father and had him set up with care givers within a week.
It was an adjustment for my father going from a doting wife who cared for his every emotional and physical need to have caregivers who he did not know come to his home to cook and care for him, but he adjusted and accepted that this was his new reality. We watched this unfold and took great comfort in knowing he was receiving the care that he needed.
There were some bumps along the way, which I sheepishly have to admit were caused mostly by my father's attempts trying to alter a situation to get his way instead of what was safe and necessary. These situations were mitigated with great communication between my family, my dad and from Visiting Angels and resolved.
Over the last year, his mobility has declined. He went from requiring 12 hours a day of care to 24 hour care after falling in his bedroom at night while alone. He injured his shoulder, but Visiting Angels was even able to provide a care giver for several hours at night during the week while he was in his rehab center for companionship.
When we realized we needed 24 hour care, Visiting Angels amazed us with their ability to provide a live-in care giver. This allowed my father to fall into a daily routine with the same person (something extremely important to him). He found it very comforting to get to know someone who also got to know him. Unfortunately this scenario ended yesterday as my father, regrettably, has reached the point that he requires multiple people to transfer him which would put any single caregiver at risk so he has to be placed in a nursing home.
We had to say goodbye to Kristin, his most recent and utterly amazing live-in care giver. She was sweet, caring, a wonderful cook and dedicated and was very much part of the family.
If it weren't for Visiting Angels, my father would have probably ended up in a nursing home or an extended care facility immediately after his wife's death which would have been devastating as he would have had to say goodbye to her and to the life he had always known at home all at once. However, Visiting Angels provided the means for him to stay at home, provide amazing care which allowed him to continue his life as normally as possible.
No one could ever replace my mom, but Visiting Angels gave us all peace of mind knowing they were providing the care we wanted to be able to provide my father on our own, but couldn't. Visiting Angels gave my father the ability to carry on with his life for over a a year in the comfort of his home. I highly recommend them.
