Two Sisters Take Turns Caring for Ailing Mother until One of Them Gives up and Walks Away — Story of the Day
Two sisters agree to look after their ailing mother, but when she becomes bedridden, the oldest sister says she already has two children and can’t take care of an invalid.
When seventy-year-old Silvia Dance was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, her two daughters got together and decided that it was now too dangerous for her to continue living on her own in that big old house.
So her two daughters, Rita and Grace got together and talked about how they could help their mother. The proposal they put to Silvia was that she would spend three months at a time with each daughter, and her huge beautiful house would be rented to help defray her living expenses. And for a while, it worked…
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At first, it was a novelty for Rita’s family, her husband, and her two kids. Silvia had always been a favorite with the grandchildren, and her son-in-law adored her. Grandma was conveniently there as a 24/7 babysitter and mom’s helper.
Silvia had some difficulty with mobility but she was a dynamic, proactive person and she was more than happy to make dinner, bake cookies, and help the kids with their homework. “She’s a blessing!” Rita’s husband, Paul, exclaimed, and she was, but Parkinson’s is a progressive disease.
Silvia spent the next three months with Grace, and by the time she returned to Rita, she was a little slower, a little less agile. Two years later, when she returned to Rita’s, she was having great difficulties moving around with a walking frame.
She wasn’t the fun grandma anymore. Her left hand spasmed into constant tremors, and her speech was becoming affected. Rita was shocked. She hadn’t expected her mother to undergo such a dramatic degeneration!
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From being a welcome helping hand, Silvia became an irritant to Rita, especially when she admitted sobbing that she’d started losing control of her bladder. That was the final straw for Rita. After all, her children were out of diapers! She’d thought such unpleasant chores were far behind her.
Rita talked to her husband and the two decided to hire a caregiver for Silvia. The several thousand dollars a month that Silvia’s 5-bedroom Malibu house had been bringing in was suddenly needed to pay the caregiver…
Rita was upset. That money had been handy for some very agreeable extras the family had grown used to…And now they had to spend it on a caregiver! It just wasn’t fair. So Rita...