Caregiving For All: December 7 2024, Del Larson, Certified Lay Minister
Friends:
Merry Christmas and God’s blessings to you and yours. Most of my emails for national caregiving links have focused on the holidays and how to make your life easier at this time of year. I can only send so many before Google and Safari start getting angry with me. I have already been hacked by Google earlier this fall, and don’t want that again. I will be sending another one without my side comments, that hopefully will be helpful for the holidays.
Just before Thanksgiving, I had a conversation with a friend who was a member of this group. The person dropped out after getting parents in memory care. They said something interesting to me that caught my attention. The person admitted to being sensitive to information and takes it personal. It bothered them when I am talking about the struggles that Luann and I went through last year in deciding to move and then moving Luann to Assisted Living. As I have mentioned numerous times, you need to talk and share your experiences with friends. I’m still working on reconnecting with old friends, but I value the information I get each and every day and wish to share with you my friends that you can find something of value for your individual needs. By the way, that one person and I will be having more discussions in the near future as we are still good friends.
Please know that I welcome feedback, good or bad. When I led different groups in my career, I always sought ways on how to make things better. I taught students to seek constructive criticism as we can learn much more. Each of us are in unique situations, and no general answer will serve everyone’s needs the same way. I feel that sharing Luann and my experiences with you will hopefully help you to look at other options or realize that is not for you. To be honest, I think most of us never got a manual on how to raise our children, and becoming a caregiver is much more difficult. Each of us will learn from the information that we hear and read. We can put the stuff that’s irrelevant into the trash and keep for reference that which might be needed later. I encourage you to share your feedback with me. Although I am not a license counselor, I am taking classes every year as required in my church role. I’m trying to be more like a coach. I am assigned this senior role of caregiving by the Minnesota-Dakotas Conference of the United Methodists. I have stepped back from my other ministry roles to concentrate on this needed information.
The first set of links are very important to check as this deals with getting your paperwork in order and done early. Don’t wait until a crisis occurs and you start looking for paperwork. Older seniors had the idea if they wrote it down and put it in their Bible it would be safe and “good enough!” That is not true. I have witnessed a few times in the past seven years it doesn’t work that way, and someone gets hurt.
I am going to send you one more email very soon on topics that will hopefully help you enjoy your holidays. I will leave out all my comments.
God bless you all. Look for the positives and celebrate the joy of a Savior who came to save us, and continues to be with us
I welcome your feedback, whether it’s positive or negative. You can reach me via the attached email, or by contacting the church to obtain my phone number.
I hope that you can find one thing that will be helpful to you.
Email: larsondel@gmail.com
Forgive me for my unedited errors. My proofreader is too busy playing bingo.
Del
10 Holiday Stress Relief Tips 20 Holiday Activities For Seniors Adapting Holiday Activities for Seniors Rules for Holiday Letter as a Caregiver Holidays and Difficult Families