Welcome to Circle of Life Caregiver Cooperative website and my brand-new first time blog!
I am one of (at this moment) fourteen caregivers at Circle of Life and a member/owner of the caregiver co-op. One of the tasks I have taken on at the co-op is updating our website, and that has led to this opportunity for me to become a blogger. I’ve kept personal diaries and journals for over forty years. I’m currently writing my second novel. And, I’ve been a professional caregiver for elders for almost twenty years. Given that background, I believe I can provide regular and interesting entries about what it is to be a caregiver, a member of a worker-owned business, a writer, a sister and daughter, as well as a friend to persons with dementia and other elder concerns.
A friend who has been out of touch for awhile recently emailed me and asked “Are you still with the Wheel of Life?” When I got over my amusement, I realized that “Wheel of Life” would be a good title for this blog, because I would like to write stories that represent my own rolling along down the road of life, not just create a marketing tool for Circle of Life or for myself as a writer but to share stories, ideas and facts about elders and their lives.
Some of my reasons for wanting to blog: wanting people to know how complex and creative this work of caregiving can be, wanting to find a new avenue to explore the big human dilemma of how do we ask for and give help/care to our friends and families? What are the relationships between independence, intimacy, dignity, and let’s face it, toileting?
I am writing a novel about a woman, 96 years old, with Alzheimer’s Disease. She lives in West Seattle with her grandson and his wife, and gets lost in the central part of Seattle for 48 hours. The work of writing a novel is an exhilarating grind. Sometimes I describe the process as being like watching a movie you love in impossibly slow motion, taking two or three years. I get lost in my fictional people and the details of their lives. I hope that by blogging about elder care, being a working person, and my writing life that I may be able to connect with other people for whom these three strands of life are braided together.
Posting this to the website has been a learning curve. I’m thinking I will write another 400-500 word entry several times a month. Coming up next on my wheel of life: lots of direct caregiving, and another blog, about how I got started working with folks with dementia (Alzheimer’s disease). Meanwhile, I’ll be writing Chapter 45 of my novel, in which the adult grandson in the story searches Capitol Hill for his Granny while coming to some difficult realizations about his marriage.