Tragedy Strikes, Part 2
Fast forward 4 years, marriage, we welcomed our first child into our lives, it was a magical time, I worked a lot, realizing that babies are super portable, and she was amazingly quiet and happy. We enjoyed our weekends skiing and visiting the in-laws then tragedy struck, my FIL became ill and as any good doctor began eliminating all possible problems until he was sure he could not fixt this himself. He finally reached out for help and after exhaustive tests was sadly unable to fix the grave illness that would eventually take his life before the year was over. In October we witnessed his tragic passing. He had 4 grandchildren by then all of whom he had visits with two of whom were barely 1 year old. We had moved them both into our home just before his passing and in between hospital stays, the home became theirs as well.
Now let me describe our home for you; my mom lived in the main floor she moved in as soon as we bought it with her partner at the time and a couple of dogs, all good. Our young family now tree in total lived on the second floor and my mother in law now became the sole resident in the third-floor suite.
In the early days, we did not see much of my much younger mother however we did establish a routine of eating with my MIL at our table daily, for most meals. In the early days life was moving by quickly, between working from home, raising 2 girls, volunteering, and dealing with daily life in a largely healthy multi-generational household was great. Little by little tiny things started changing, work was sometimes more stressful, the girls needed us more or less depending on the season and what sport or event was happening, and the Grandmothers continued to age with grace and little impact that was noticeable. Mostly it was manageable.
Now we come to the past several years, and how I got here talking to you. My MIL began to decline cognitively, over the years as her caregiver I kept her healthy managing her hip replacements, various minor illnesses, appointments to a team that helped her all along the way and enjoying the benefit of her company. We had my husband’s siblings who were all out of town who came in whenever they could, especially during big events like hospital visits and holidays. Time passed, as it does when there is a lot going on in everyone’s life, we started noticing more and more decline in my MIL s reasoning abilities, she started getting lost on her regular walks, and generally became more distressed when we were not around. Life as we knew it changed again.