Sunday, February 19, 2006

Cleaning House

My wife decided it is time to give up trying to take care of her dad in our home. The fine line between him being an "inconvenience" and realistically not being equipped to provide 24/7 care for him with our limited family resources is a tough one to negotiate emotionally. She and her brother visited several private nursing care homes last week and put his name on waiting lists.

The roller coaster is now in motion. This decision has been the kick start for putting our household back in order. This weekend we started remodeling the basement that has become a catch all for everything from storage boxes, my father in law's coffin we built, old Christmas stuff, a bed for visitors, my guitar and amplifier collections, boxes and boxes of books, old computers and just plain crap. Its a nice finished basement family room with a fireplace that has become a dumping ground. We've been putting out fires for so long it has become a "lifestyle" and we've become immune to the sight of having a garage sale in our basement. I'm thinking of invoking the 6 month rule: if we haven't seen it, used it or missed it for 6 months it goes in the dumpster. That would be most of our possessions, I think. At least just about everything in the basement right now. Gotta go vacuum.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

A very hard decision on a good day. A nearly impossible decision on a bad day. But she's doing it and God bless her. I know you both have done a good job of caring for Dad.

Just make sure the place she looks at is a non-profit. Once he's in, he'll stay, no matter his finances.

Hang tough.

Mimi said...

Godspeed, and prayers with both you and your dear wife. She's been an incredible daughter and will continue to be.