For twenty years I have been a Social Worker retiring in May of this year. I have been accustomed to having some hard conversations with patients and their partner or other family members. I always knew it must be hard to hear that they needed to go into residential care, but I never fully put myself in their shoes until yesterday. A harmless conversation with my husband set me to thinking about how it would feel for me if someone brought that conversation to me.
The answer to that question is, it would feel hard, very hard to have someone tell me that I wasn’t safe to stay at home. That I needed more care than my husband could give me, even with help. I looked around my beautiful house, with the garden in bloom and the thought of not living here and seeing that garden every day was very difficult.
Hopefully, I will be able to stay in this house for many more years yet, but do I think I will ever be ready to leave? If I’m honest, the answer would have to be no! I would do my best to make the move graciously and think of how hard it would be for my husband, but it would still be hard.
For those of you facing that decision, I hope that you get the support that you need and that you can still maintain the relationships that are important to you.
I have recorded a Podcast today, if you would like to have a listen. It’s called ‘I have a confession to make’ I’ll put it on a separate page.
My journey with Parkinsons 