I Should Have Been More Prepared

Through the years I have toured many families.  I often hear this statement, “We’re just starting to look, we want to be prepared”, but I also hear …“I should have been more prepared, I should have paid more attention.”  This one tugged at my heart a little more because it came from a younger family member. I was taken back with such a young person feeling this responsibility.   

I stopped talking about how we could help his mother and focused on his distress. I told him and I’m informing you, the readers, through my own personal family experience, serious health conditions don’t play fair.  They have no timeline and they know no boundaries.  There may be no way for you to know how quickly your loved one could decline in their health and you may be caught unprepared to care for them.  I’m asking you to not blame yourself.  Simply do the best you can and know you did a good job with what you knew and learned. 

I call my personal learning, Baptism by Fire.  I thought I was on top of things with my mom and then all of the sudden, things changed, without notice.  You do the best you can in the moment. You pull in your resources, friends and family and because you are a loving son, daughter, parent, grandparent or friend, I know you will do the best you can do.  Your loved one is so very fortunate to have you in their corner and you are so very fortunate to have them in your life.  Speaking from my own experience, take the energy you are using to blame yourself and put it into the next steps of planning around your loved ones health and don’t forget…‘BE’ with them.  (See Doing vs. Being on our articles page)

With Gratitude,
Beth Woodward
Director of Marketing
Augustana Regent at Burnsville
952-898-8722
bwwoodwa@augustanaregent.com