Called to be a caregiver
When I was 12 years old, my beloved grandmother started having grand mal seizures at nighttime. I volunteered to stay with her and sleep with her at night. At my age, I certainly didn’t understand what to expect, but love triumphed fear.
Grandma would flail her arms and legs, shake the whole bed and scream out in delirium. I was terrified. I would run up the street to get my aunt to help. Until the next evening grandma would not know who we were or what happened. As I look back at me as a little girl, and the responsibility I had, it has prepared me and changed me more that I can say.
When I was 47, my daddy fell and hit his head and suffered a traumatic brain injury. Up until that day, he was taking care of my mom, driving, walking and gardening. He no longer could do any of that. I took my Mama and Daddy in at the same time. I only had a 2 bedroom home, so I put a hospital bed in my living room. Mama had CHF, COPD and schizophrenia. Daddy had A Fib and the brain injury. My husband took care of them during the day, I took care of after I got off work at 2pm. I had worked in healthcare since I was 19. Mama lived 2 years with us until she passed. Daddy lived 7 years with us before he passed in 2014. Three years later, I came home from work, and found my husband without any signs of life. I pulled him off off of his weight bench onto the floor and started screaming his name and doing CPR. I continued CPR until EMS arrived. EMS did CPR for 20 minutes to no avail, before calling it. As they were taking him on the stretcher to the hospital in the ambulance, I asked, “Is he breathing?” The paramedic said , “No ma’am, I’m not going to lie to you, he’s not”. I prayed all the way to the hospital. I went to the family room with my daughter, and I had to go to the bathroom. I told myself, I can’t believe this is happening, I’m a widow at 57. I used the restroom and went back into the family room. The ER dr had come in while I was in the restroom. I sit down, and the DR said, “Well, he’s alive!” In the state of confusion, I asked “He’s alive?” The Dr said, “Yes, he’s alive and unstable”. I couldn’t grasp it. After some time I was able to go to the trauma room. He was intubated and had tubes everywhere. There was a young lady in a paramedic uniform, standing there, staring at him. She asked, “Are you his wife?” I said yes. In a daze she said “He just started breathing on his own in the ambulance!” I knew God had breathed the breath of life back into him. He had been down for 30 minutes. God answered my prayers. My husband did suffer a severe brain injury and was in the hospital for 5 months. I took him home, I took care of his every need. He lived 2 1/2 years and passed in 2020. In 2021, my sweetheart from when I was 16 yrs old contacted me. We have been together 5 years now. He has IPF for which there is no cure. He has progressively gotten worse. Now, I am his caregiver and his love. I have no regrets. I know that I have done everything within my power to help my loved ones. I understand that God had this specific calling for me. I will never say it was easy, or I didn’t feel like I could go on, or I didn’t feel like giving up. All I know is, I gave everything I had to complete my mission. My prayer is that if anyone is on the fence about taking care of a loved one, pray about it. Ask God what He would have you to do. I have found that when I am helping others, God gives me more strength than when I try to help myself. This is my testimony. God Bless you all. 🙏