Aging parent laundry or the lack of doing laundry

[seeitrun2006]

My parents this past weekend

My wife and I along with my parents went to a wedding this past weekend. Our niece, their granddaugther was the one getting married. It was a long distance away so we had to spend the night in a hotel. We went to the rehersal dinner Friday night and the wedding on Saturday at noon. My parents did wonderful. My Mother even in her dementive state loves to be around people. Since she sees me as a caregiver-no longer as her son she tells me all the time "if you are there I will be there". She had a blast!

When they went to change clothes to travel back home I quickly gathered all the dress clothes and brought them home to be washed/dry cleaned.

I sometimes wish my Dad was acting out of fear. He would be a lot easier to deal with. His stubborn attitude towards saving every penny just blows me away. My dad use a dishwasher-please Stone Mountain would be in their front yard before that would happen. I use it sometimes when I'm there to make sure it still works and to aggrevate me dad. He just raises hell everytime I run it!

Thanks for everyones comments and opinions!

Peace,
David

 

[polkanut]

David,

I know what you're going through with a relative who tries to get by with spending as little money as possible. My wife's uncle was the exact same way as your dad, and needed to enter a nursing home in Jan. 2009 due to dementia. Now as of June 1st, he will be on Medicaid because he's exhausted his finances, except for his burial insurance. Now in his lucid moments, he wishes he would not have been quite so frugal. Too bad we have to spend ourselves into poverty just so we can stay in a skilled care facility.

 

[mixfinder]

Never Enough

I have seen many friends and family save and go with out their entire lives and in the end the money they hoarded is seldom enough to outlast longterm care. The real travesty is that once a patient runs out of money and goes on Medicaid the services available are often better than the what they paid full for. It really bites when a self pay is in the same room with an aid patient and it gets rubbed in your face.

 

[polkanut]

Kelly,

I couldn't agree more! When my grandmother was in end-stage breast cancer, her care was fantastic. She had been in assisted living, and in the nursing home for a toal of 10yrs. Between the nursing home staff and hospice care, she quietly joined my grandpa on June 2, 2005 @ 4am. I can't believe it will be 5yrs already. I guess the moral of the story is this: live in the moment.