Walking the Road of Aging: How Caregiving Shaped My Work with Older Adults
My work with older adults is shaped not only by professional training and experience, but also by my own journey as a caregiver.
I helped care for my father as he lived and died with Lewy Body dementia. Watching him slip away was heartbreaking. He had been a university professor, counselor, pastor, and speaker, and to my mother, a doting husband. To me, he was a wonderful father and one of the kindest people I have ever known. As a little girl in the 1960s and 70s, he would often take me along when he visited "shut-ins" in our small community. To witness the same man who once modeled compassion for others slowly fade into dementia was devastating. That sadness still lives in me.
I also witnessed the toll his illness took on my mother. For years, we believed she would pass before him, she had battled cancer, endured heart surgeries, and later developed Parkinson’s. Yet she outlived him and had to find her way through grief after losing the man she had been married to for more than 60 years. Five years later, COVID forced her into isolation. When she contracted the virus, she died just three weeks later. My brother and I shared the sacred experience of being at her bedside until her final breath.
These experiences left a deep imprint. They taught me that aging is never an individual journey, it ripples through families and communities. I learned the weight of caregiving, the ache of watching someone you love slip away, and the quiet resilience required to keep going.
They also shaped the compassion I bring to my work today. Whether I’m supporting someone caring for a loved one or walking alongside older adults themselves as they face changes they never asked for, I carry with me the lessons my parents taught me. Their lives and their losses, continue to guide me as I accompany others through the hard, but also meaningful, road of aging.
Ready to take the next step?
Let’s find a path forward together.
