At Maddy’s Side
From Chicken Soup for the Soul: Family Caregivers
By Jane Brzozowski

To us, family means putting your arms around each other and being there.
~Barbara Bush

“I can’t do that!” I told my sister-in-law Jeanne. My beloved mother-in-law, Maddy, at age 91, had suddenly slipped from needing frequent visitors to needing full-time help, including someone to walk her to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Now she needed someone, this very night. Because there was no time to buy any kind of bed alarm or monitor, what was needed was someone to arrive that night and actually crawl into bed with her, to be there to hear if she tried to get up alone. I could not imagine doing that. It was so private, so personal, so intimate. What if I didn’t hear her get up? What if she fell when I was in charge? What if she was as scared as I would be if someone had crawled into bed next to me in the middle of the night?

I called my own sister to discuss the situation. “I can’t do that!” I complained. (Keep reading)