We’re lucky enough to have several really good neighbors.

Our next door neighbors are particularly wonderful.  An elderly woman lives there with her two sons.  It used to be just her and one son, who lived in the basement, but last year she had a stroke.  For a long time we didn’t see her out like usual, and then we saw the rest of her kids coming around a lot.  We were really worried that something had happened to her.

Well, it turned out she was in a rehab center for a long time, and then another of her sons moved in to take care of her when she came home.  He gave up his job and his home in another state to do it, but he seems happy!  I don’t know if he has any home health care training, but he’s always wearing scrubs and he takes care of his mom just like any dedicated companion or nurse.

For the first couple of months after she came home, we saw young women stop by, sometimes a couple of times in one day.  I don’t know if they were nurses making house calls or coming on scheduled visits, or just rehab center employees checking up on their former patient.  Maybe they were physical therapists.  Whomever they were, though, they obviously had direct care worker training.

I think taking care of your elderly parents has to be difficult.  You have to know a lot about things like fall prevention home care, especially with people like our neighbor who have had a stroke.  I don’t know how her son does it, but I definitely understand why many people hire in home care for their aging parents!

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