ABSTRACT
A middle-aged woman dropped by my office. She asked how things were going and then began to talk about her mother.
My mother has Alzheimer’s. There’s always so much to learn. I read books. I know my grandmother who is 101 could die any time. I think we’re prepared for that. I know my mother doesn’t remember that my father is dead. I guess we all have times where we are still grieving. But it’s not that heavy sort of grieving that is constant and goes on all day. I know, in this place where my mother is, there is a staff person taking it hard because a person he really cared about had a DNR order and he had to just watch this patient die. We don’t think about the effects such an order has on the staff. As families, I guess we just think they’re trained to deal with it. They say you’re not supposed to get close to the people you care for-but you do.
