Mom Got Old! The Perils of Long Term Care

My mother died recently. Those of us with the privilege of having our parent(s) grow old are blessed with many years of making and reliving beautiful memories with them. There reaches a time when age takes over and decline begins. There are advance preparations that you and your parent can make together to get through this stressful time of life not only with dignity and compassion but with practical and real-world solutions to the many unforeseen and inevitable decisions that must be made. It starts years before any physical or mental decline. Being prepared can make the end of life less painful for you, your parent(s), and even your own children when the time comes for them to make decisions for you. This story is about my wonderful mother and what we did together years in advance, during her decline, and after her passing. I have written a timeline of the steps we took together and then I took myself. I reveal many events that surprised and sometimes shocked us. I am sure that there are suggestions here that may help guide others who have aging parents. I also feel it is a tribute to my mother's beautiful gift of preparing as well as she could for her old age.