Each time our strength to keep caring is questioned, it’s answered by a smile the greatness of my mum or kind words of support

Hi  

In been a particularly difficult couple of weeks for my mum and for me as her son .We are at a difficult stage of this journey and the reality is we are at end of life care in many ways .After a couple of admissions to hospital over the last months always hoping for something underlying that can be fixed, we are at the stage of an increased decline with my mums dementia and a couple of issues of worry with other health issues that at this stage we can only monitor and try to control best we can to keep my mum as comfortable ,cared for and loved as we can .like anyone caring for someone they love we have days of strength and weakness ,hope and despair ,joy and heartbreak .I am as anyone can imagine am  trying to keep strong and fend of a broken heart ,.we have to in order to continue .I was feeling down last night worried about my mum and was is  ahead and then I got a few emails of support from some students who attended  a wee talk I was invited to do a few days ago and this morning giving my mum her bath and seeing how frail she is I almost broke down in tears ,then my wee mum who I care for rubbed my arm with a loving smile as if to say its ok thomas ,we are ok ,we can do this. You can do this That’s one of the amazing things about caring we rely on and give strength to each other, whatever the dimensions of the life we lead and it got me thinking how lucky I am to have the support of so many people out there and how the e mails I received last night or the life stories I receive,even though some bring me to tears ,they give me strength to keep caring and campaigning the best I can ,but what about the many thousands of people out there who have no support or are  forgotten by families and the wider  society  ,How do they do it I know they do .they do for the  love they have ,but they need more than that they need to be reminded of the wonderful care they give but more importantly they have to be given the support and respect  from the wider society and listened to .if you want to know what its like to care for a loved one ,ask a carer it just might change you’re life

Tommy