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| Everyday some 25 million Americans provide care for someone they
love who is sick or frail. These four individuals shared with us
their personal experience of caring for a sick or dying loved one
and told us what their lives are truly like. |
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Janet Chin cared for her mother who died of stomach cancer.
My family and friends really kicked in, and my mother's sisters
and cousins came from all over to provide me some help, because
one person cannot do it. I was a workaholic. It's hard to be a workaholic
now. Work is definitely not the high priority that it was and my
career is not the priority that it was.
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Mary Ann Thyken has cared for her mother for the last four years.
Her mother has Alzheimer's disease and no longer recognizes her.
It's still my mother in there. My mother's feelings are still there.
She is still a sweet and lovely person. The fact that she doesn't
remember me or doesn't really remember having five children: there
are times when you just wish she could. You just wish you had her
back. So this is my mother. It is not the same mother I had ten
years ago, but to me, she is still my mother.
Watch
a Home Movie
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Larry Faulks is caring for his mother who has a slow growing
cancer.
One of the issues for me has always been, I'm a male. And males
traditionally are not caregivers, so I don't get this social support.
I've had friends literally laugh at me because I take care of my
mother, so it's really difficult outside of the support group to
maintain a sense of, okay, I'm going through this, and I'm going
to be safe and sane.
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