A Caregiver Gave Our Parents What We Could Not By: Kate Girard Guilt and gratitude are common companions. I should know. They have been on either side of me in the past three years, my escorts, ever since a woman called Hermie began to care for my elderly parents. My mother died a few months ago, after an illness of five years. My father, who is still living, has also had serious health challenges. In the first years of my parents decline, my three siblings and I pleaded with them to move from their home in a small southwestern Ontario village. None of us adult children lived nearby, and we grew increasingly worried as my fathers dementia worsened. One day, I got an e-mail from my eldest sister, saying she had been in contact with an agency that hired caregivers from the Philippines. In fact, she had interviewed a potential caregiver on the phone. What did I think, she asked. Well, I had strong misgivings about the Live-In Caregiver program. It seemed to me, and still does, like a form of indentured servitude. The program strikes…
Father and Twin Sister are turning 95 By: Suzanne Taylor My father celebrates his 95th birthday this Dec. 10. He is a fraternal twin to a sister, who was born first. The two of them still argue about why she was born first. She says it's because he was so bossy, while he says it's because she was so pushy that she pushed her way around him and out into the world. Being the more reticent twin, my father came out with the help of forceps. He casually mentioned it to me during a visit a few years back, guiding my hand to the bumps on the back of his skull where the instrument left its permanent mark. They have always been like this - him deferring to her more dominating nature when he goes to visit her in Edmonton, eating another slab of her excellent apple pie even though he is full - and not that keen on pie to begin with. Being hard of hearing, the twins yell at each other in conversation, yet lean in conspiratorially as if no one else can hear them. We leave them to their privacy, trying our best not to listen…
