Thank you, Donna! Hope you stay warm, too! Eeps!!! Happy new year! ❤

Thank you for reading, and for this lovely note, Heather! My blog rolls are antique, so I will have to update them at some point. I loved your blog post, too! Eileen Myles grouchy and fidgeting in meditation = bliss!

Dementia combined with other health problems, along with your mother not being open to home health services, is rough. I know that being the Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care is rough as well. But I’m so glad to hear that you are willing and able to make decisions that he (or your mother) may not be able to make for himself. It is so so hard. If you ever want to chat, both me and my husband are here for you. Private email me if you ever want to. In any case, we’re here. ❤

Thank you for this kind note, Betty! I’ve been in touch with several social workers at this point, and they’ve been very helpful! The sticking point this fall had been that my parents simply refused to answer the door to home healthcare or to welfare checks. However, with this most recent hospitalization (which revealed several new small strokes in my father’s brain, in addition to an earlier undiagnosed stroke, as well as the dementia he had been diagnosed with this summer), the medical consensus at this point is that my father is, sadly, no longer competent enough to make medical or legal decisions for himself, and that he is no longer going to be able to safely live at home. While on the one hand this is awful, it is a small relief in the potential catastrophes that could have happened this fall and that I was dreading might happen this fall, and it also means that I can move forward with conservatorship/guardianship and make the necessary decisions to ensure my parents safety and well-being. It’s hard, hard, hard stuff, though. Thank you for listening! ❤

Hang in there. Keeping blogging if it helps. I’m listening!