Isolation and loneliness just don’t seem to get eradicated; they even intensify in some instances, once your caree is gone. There is even a greater sense of being abandoned. I talked about on my radio show how I didn’t belong anywhere as a caregiver before I got involved with caregiving.com. Now that I am no longer a caregiver that sense of not belonging is again plaguing me. If I am not able to leave the house and go somewhere, which is most days, then I am alone, all day and often in the evenings. Alone in mom’s house with memories of mom all around. Tomorrow it will be 4 weeks since mom passed. How fast these weeks have gone but yet it seems like she just left today. I am having to find my own way through this process of grief and sorrow, loneliness and loss. The hospice people basically left me high and dry, no support for me once mom was gone. The people of my church are awesome but they live an hour or more from me. My family is still the same, uninvolved. So, I have to figure out each day, each moment sometimes, what will I do, how do I get through, and somehow I do…but only with His grace for sure. Miss you mom….
donna, when my grandmother died, I also felt like " now, what do I do? I'm a caregiver, it is my IDENTITY, or so I thought! As, it turns out, I DO believe that is true to an extent. Mother is now the focus and I do feel this is what I was made for, in a way. But, as we all know, the day will come when, it will be just us left, most likely and there will need to be more. May God direct you in finding what that is. I know He will. And may I add, it's disappointing to hear that seemingly no after-care was offered to you.That's just not right!
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