Parents age quickly -if you look at the last post you can see how much they have aged in a couple of years
My mom and dad have a simple request: they want to stay in their house and live together as long as they are able. With mom becoming blind to where she cannot cook, it is becoming more difficult, and especially as mom has become a bit fragile of late.
That is the difficult part for mom – she is the best cook I know- and I have eaten at some of the finest restaurants in the world, and it isn’t just home cooking, it is her ability to balance food, to season perfectly, to flavor with flare. Even the scrambled eggs I made for them in the photo above – mom chided me that I didn’t cut the fresh chives small enough.
For my dad, eating is an easy thing: he drives to a restaurant, gets some food and brings it home. But for my mom, who is often left at home, it isn’t always easy. For her, it means the person she is usually with, the one who orients her to the world isn’t there, and sometimes when she’s waking from a deep sleep, not having healthy vision to get oriented, it’s difficult.
But food is a simple thing, and yet it is not. Eating out every day isn’t healthy, it isn’t nutritious, and often doesn’t taste that great. Most restaurants do not cook food made-to-order, they have a lot of pre-packaged and frozen foods that are re-heated. Which means the left-overs you bring home are even less palatable.
When you start looking at assisted living facilities the costs are $10,000 to $15,000 a month – and the food isn’t necessarily any better.
We discovered a unique service that brings people into the home who can do some light cleaning, grocery shopping, and fixing the meals. This means they will be fresh, they will be made-to-order, and they won’t be cold upon delivery. The cost is much less – and there is an added benefit- company. Someone to talk to besides each other. Someone they can call if they need something in a hurry.
People think that when you get older you need a lot of professional health care workers – what I’ve discovered is that you don’t. What you need is someone to help do the simple things, provide simple but delicious meals, and some great conversation. There is a large group of us getting to the age where this is what we need – and I am thankful that there are people who enjoy helping the elderly with this.
