Stories from Caregivers: Rian from MICHIGAN
MI
Rian
FROM MICHIGAN
I cared for my grandmother until she departed this world. She was diagnosed with cancer about six months before her passing. Each and every day after work I would go to her and take care of her. Make sure she ate, slept, was clean and took her medicine. I am not in the medical field at all but as her granddaughter I learned quick to help take care of her. We had some wonderful medical staff on her team but I felt like she needed family there. She needed me there. The most difficult part was seeing my grandmother being sickly. But now that she is no longer here I appreciate that time I spent helping to take care of her. The advice I give to people is to help with your elderly family members because even when they have the trained medical staff available sometimes they need someone familiar to help them. An example is sometimes my grandmother would not want to eat the food they offered her but because I was there with her I was able to persuade her to eat. And it's kind of funny now to think of that because I am sure as a child she had to persuade me as well. I surely do miss her but appreciate being able to help take care of her at that time.
