I understood my mission.

Please don’t panic, my fellow care-givers. I sense that some of you do. When you first learn or suspect that your loved one may have Alzheimer’s. Don’t automatically assume the worst. Look at the big picture early in the journey. And try to think positively. Try to decide on a game plan that’s best for the patient. And best for you, the care-giver, too. Best overall for everyone. It may mean some give and take, some compromise and some very hard decisions. You might even have to put the patient in a nursing home. For the sake of everyone. Yes, that can in some instances be a better option than keeping the patient at home under the care of a beleaguered 24/7 care-giver. Sometimes we persist on staying on a wrong course to everyone’s detriment. And that just doesn’t make sense. But because we are so close to the situation, and tired and exhausted and in emotional turmoil, we aren’t in a position to make a good and objective decision. And that’s sad. I look back on my 13 years as a care-giver. Eventually, I more or less stumbled on to a solution. On to the right course. For Jeanne. For me. Believe me, I made plenty of mistakes along the way. Mistakes that harmed Jeanne. Mistakes that harmed me. With the benefit of hindsight, I’d do some things over, in other ways. But as far as the last three years go, I’d do things pretty much the same. I finally got it right. I learned not to panic. I took life a day at a time. And I understood my mission. To love Jeanne unconditionally. --Jim Broede