GRAND Magazine - Spring 2024 - 34
caregiving
Caregiving for my wife was the
vow we took almost 65 years
earlier. In sickness and in health
BY RICHARD J. ANTHONY, SR.
A
few years before my wife's illness required
caregiver support, I made a prophetic
investment in a startup venture that had
developed technology to assist caregivers and
care-dependent adults. Because I believed in the
company's mission, I joined the venture to advise
them on strategy and marketing, two areas in which I
had consulted for many years.
Through research and talking with people in the
field, I learned that there are 53 million unpaid family
caregivers in the country and the nation is facing a
looming caregiver crisis because people are living
longer with multiple morbidities. Because of stress
and fatigue, caregivers can suffer from debilitating
physical and mental health illnesses. Careers are
often disrupted or ended for those who work and put
in an additional 25 hours a week on average caring
"
for a loved one. On average, caregivers spend 4.5
years providing care. And I learned that more men
and young people are changing the stereotypical
caregiver profile of a 47-year-old female.
You would think that knowing more than the average
person about caregiving would have better
prepared me for the full-time role I assumed for my
beloved wife, Marlene.
It didn't. Like most family caregivers, the daunting
responsibility for a loved one's well-being was
thrust upon me as she became increasingly more
dependent.
Marlene had been a fiercely independent person,
a character trait honed over years as a mother to five
children, grandmother to 15, and great-grandmother
to eight. She didn't live to see our ninth great-grandchild,
but we're sure she met him in Heaven before
Like most family caregivers, the daunting responsibility for a loved one's wellbeing
was thrust upon me as she became increasingly more dependent.
34 GRAND SPRING 2024
"
he was born. Even as a 14-year-old when we first met,
and through the years of our marriage which was just
short of 65 years, she was strong-willed with a mind
of her own.
Although she grudgingly became reliant on a collection
of canes, upstairs and downstairs walkers, a
red plaid wheelchair, and other assistive devices, she
would not be cowed into submission by idiopathic
respiratory symptoms, heavily medicated hypertension,
and eventually the early stages of vascular
dementia. She even rebounded from a bad fall on
Christmas Eve that broke her petite nose and put
a nasty gash on her forehead. The staff in the ER
insisted that she stay, but spending Christmas in the
hospital away from the gleeful cacophony of a fivegeneration
family brunch and Christmas gift wrappings
strewn all over the living room floor was not
acceptable. Marlene was indomitable.
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GRAND Magazine - Spring 2024
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of GRAND Magazine - Spring 2024
Contents
GRAND Magazine - Spring 2024 - Cover1
GRAND Magazine - Spring 2024 - 2
GRAND Magazine - Spring 2024 - 3
GRAND Magazine - Spring 2024 - Contents
GRAND Magazine - Spring 2024 - 5
GRAND Magazine - Spring 2024 - 6
GRAND Magazine - Spring 2024 - 7
GRAND Magazine - Spring 2024 - 8
GRAND Magazine - Spring 2024 - 9
GRAND Magazine - Spring 2024 - 10
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GRAND Magazine - Spring 2024 - 38
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