You are very welcome, @carolesue. The isolation and loneliness of caregiving was one of the major issues I had in mind.

One of the nicest aspects of Connect is you can 'connect' anytime, day or night. I also know caregiving can lead to some very weird schedules in life!

Peace and strength

@carolesue
Thank you for your very honest and real comment. I couldn't help but notice that, as my father sank into the netherworld of Alzheimer's, my parents' friends just didn't come around any more. I am noticing the same with us, as my husband is sinking further into dementia. Another side of it is that, as a 24/7 caretaker, you can't just run out on a whim when friends want to get together, or even, often, for a planned event.

On a lighter note, I have made a playlist of up-beat, energizing music selections on my computer, that I have burned onto a CD, and playing that when I'm really down, helps. Sometimes it even gets me moving to the beat!

Hi @macbeth I LOVE your playlist idea! While my wife was fighting her cancer I really missed music, radio, tv, etc. She found these to be too overwhelming for her senses. Now I relish playing my favorites every the time I can. Can't get back into TV, but that may be a good thing 🙂

I also agree with you and @carolsue on the isolation/loneliness aspects of caregiving. They can each be truly challenging at times! It was this aspect of it, which sent me searching and finding Connect. My wife and I had many mutual friends of more than 40 years who simply disappeared from our lives when we got my wife's diagnosis. I have two siblings, both of whom never stepped foot in our home for the 14 years of my wife's disease.

This aspect of caregiving also impacted my wife greatly, which I did not see coming. She could not understand the great number of folks who totally abandoned her at her time of great need for not only a visit now and again, but a call, note, card, email I could read to her, etc.. I knew it was felt by me, but I did not realize how profoundly it was effecting her until one day when she asked me to grab a pad of paper and pencil. I did and she told me she wanted me to write down the names she was going to recite to me. I said sure, but asked her what for. She said it was the list of people she wanted me to invite to her 'celebration of life' (rather than a funeral), which she had designed and wanted held in our home. I asked her if she was sure and she looked me straight in the eyes and said "Scott, I don't want anyone standing in our living room blowing smoke up your (insert body part here) saying how much they cared about me after I am dead, when they didn't give a (explicative deleted) about me when I was alive!". And so it was...

I know Reverend Martin Luther King was talking about something different when he said this, but I often recite this quote from him when I am describing caregiving to others. It is: "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

Peace and strength!