We Should All Be Informal Caregivers
We celebrated St. Patrick’s Day with a neighborhood gathering: a potluck, Guinness stout, Irish Whiskey, soda bread, toasts, and gossip (the friendly kind) and lots of laughs. It was a bring your own lawn chair kind of event. Everyone gathered at a neighbor’s house, a street of neatly landscaped duplexes, and a token crape myrtle in the front yard. Irish music blared, “Oh Danny Boy” and everyone sang along.
What was intended to be a St. Patrick’s Days celebration, was in retrospect, a big Irish Wake, for a neighbor, who was deceased, in the adjacent duplex. Yes, “Oh Danny Boy” belted out loudly by all the neighbors was for you my friend, Bill. Our elderly neighbor, Bill had passed away, sadly, a week before, along with his companion dog, and was not found until a week after the party. Someone had made the comment that faded boxes had been sitting on Bill’s porch for some time, as the corners in the sun were faded and wrinkled.
We had come to know Bill only as the elusive neighbor, who walked his dog late each night, only to be captured on security cameras. Bill kept to himself and if it wasn’t for his lack of lawn care and overgrowth in his back yard, he probably wouldn’t be mentioned. Last summer, as a neighborhood, we blessed Bill with mowing/weeding of his yard.
The St. Patrick’s Day party, Irish Wake for Bill, was a fitting send off for our lovely neighbor!
I’m sure folks were shocked to find out Bill had been deceased for two weeks, and he was only discovered when a friend, “out of state” had a wellness check done.
SO a gentle reminder, we have a moral duty to be Informal Caregivers to our elderly and disabled neighbors.
This is especially important in those neighborhoods comprised of mostly retirees. We are all busy, but it can make a big difference in someone’s life.
Be Alert:
Changes in behavior or you haven’t seen them for a while
Trashcan not taken out or brought in
Boxes/Mail collecting on porch
Overgrown yard
Have an emergency contact
Establish routine contact (when possible)
Offer to help out with a daily task
Share: your time, a meal, or quick touch base
ABOUT LISA MALONE:
Currently my sister and I are full-time caregivers to our 91 year old mother. I moved to Winnabow, NC two years ago. I love fly fishing, writing, and hiking with my Boston Terrier, Maggy and Shiba Inu, O’Kami.