Up to Bat... Again?!

I originally planned on beginning this blog back in 2016, ironically on a night that I also began showing symptoms of pink eye, lovingly given to me by our first born. Pink eye develops really quickly, btw. Those soft baby hands touching my face were up to unknown bacterial shenanigans! I digress.

Back then, in 2016, I had just moved across the country with my husband, our dog, our bearded dragon, and our newborn son to Ashtabula, OH and had started taking care of my father before even unpacking our house. I was completely surrounded by boxes, both ours and my father's, to the ceiling throughout our house. I felt lost and in a world that felt split in two: one of a first time parent and one of a young caregiver. I had no idea what I was doing with my father's situation; it was a complete puzzle with pieces thrown all over Northern Ohio that that took years to retrieve. I was in over my head, but I also had a lot of great guidance along the way, which I hope to share with anyone needing it now.

I should have started this blog then. Since that time, I have found more and more young (and older) adults being in this surreal world of simultaneously taking care of two generations while feeling isolated and alone in their own generation. When people heard what I was doing, they literally stopped inviting me to anything fun because they could not handle the weight of hearing about anything going on my life. So here I am, for anyone else who knows those shoes and how hard they are to walk in. Especially in our twenties and thirties! I thought these would be fun years! The years have been tumultuous and a strange balance of enjoying my children as they grow while mourning and witnessing the losses of milestones that come with long-term disease and end of life.

I've read that you shouldn't stay in your comfort zone too long, but I have felt my comfort zone, quite literally, becoming uncomfortable over these years, if I was ever comfortable to start with, which has led me here. If it helps another find any solution to a problem or give a minute or two for a break from life, then it is worth writing about my experiences, steps I have taken that helped my father and, now, grandmother. Life here along the North shore of Lake Erie with my family is always evolving, and the next chapter of caregiving for me is just starting, which is in part grieving the lost potential and absence regarding my father and the new adventures with caring for another beloved relative. Who, by the way, decided that I was going to care for them the second they heard that my father had passed. (Thanks for asking, right?!) I was preparing for a completely different path and career, but life has a funny way of surprising us.

I have found that sharing and writing helps relieve some of the burden, especially when it can help others in similar situations. So feel free to join me as I find humor in the silver lining and enjoy the blessing that is an ordinary day. That is, when we have an ordinary day.

Whether you are just curious about life along NE Ohio's Lake Erie, have been a caregiver or Stay at/Work from Home Parent, or are actively caring for an older family member, welcome. And enjoy the ride that is my rollercoaster.

I am up to bat again as a patient advocate, short-term memory keeper, mediator, and medical interpreter, while my husband and I move into the next phase in life with our three growing children. We have officially left the baby stage with our youngest turning two and are moving into the toddler and elementary school years. Are you ready to laugh and cry? I'm not. What?! I'm honest. I am not prepared for this again or so soon.

Until next time, have an ordinary day, my friend.