By Patricia Lee, Destinites
I want to start off this new year by saying thank you to all of my Destinites Facebook group members for the love and support they constantly show me since I became my daddy’s caregiver. He has dementia/Alzheimer’s, and it has been slowly overtaking him for about five years. The situation finally evolved, and I had to move in with my parents to help my mother. Talk about a life-altering experience, and at the age of 63, it’s not what I thought I would be doing. Having said that, though, nobody knows better than I how life can change in a split second. I have dealt with a lot of major life events/tragedies including fighting three different cancers, two of which I was not supposed to survive, but none of that can compare to this Alzheimer’s situation. This is a whole different ball game on many different levels. In your wildest dreams, you cannot imagine what the patient, family and caregivers go through. God is my foundation and people who show me support are my angels; Destinites are my angels.
I cannot stress here enough how important it is for caregivers to have support. However, I know some people do not like the idea of belonging to some type of specific support group. That’s fine. A general community group like our Destinites group will work. In my case, there are many there who have or are currently going through the same situation, and they have offered great suggestions which have tremendously helped me. Not to mention, I gained a prayer chain, which is as important as anything else. If you are an Alzheimer’s or any type of caregiver, do not sit there thinking you can handle it all by yourself. You will lose your mind without having someone to talk to who understands and is not judgmental. Our Destinites Facebook group is a general community help group but you can find more there than just recommendations for roofers or other general needs. Members help each other with all kinds of different things, but we have a few laughs along the way, too. You may not be the one who needs support for any reason right now, but you may be able to help someone else who does, so please join us. We are nothing in this life if we are not reaching out to help each other. It’s what life is all about; lifting each other up and extending a helping hand.
If you are a resident of Destin or the nearby area, I invite you to join our private locals Destinites Facebook group at www.Facebook.com/Destinites with more than 7,100 members. We also have a monthly newsletter, which anyone may sign up for from the homepage of our website at www.Destinites.com. If you own a local business and would like to advertise in our group or in our newsletter, please email me at DestinitesGroupBox@gmail.com. Thank you and Happy New Year!
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