Caregiving Story

I cared for my mother for many years through many different illnesses. She first was introduced to breast cancer at a very young age. I was only 5-years-old and I will never forget me and my brothers had to go stay with relatives and I remember when she come home how sick she was and then she had to go through radiation. She was burned very badly from that treatment. As time went on she was then introduced to diabetes. I was then about 10-years-old when that happened so my brothers showed me how to give her insulin shots. So we learned to enjoy life as we sw all that she was going through. I had to go that extra mile to make her smile. She never seemed to smile much but I tried everything to keep her smiling by cooking, cleaning, spending extra time with her just laughing and talking but I guess the divorce from my Dad caused the nervous breakdown she had. I never wanted to see a person be destroyed mentally that way ever. My mother was gone away to a facility for a while but she returned. It took some weeks for her to really bounce back but I always treated her like she was a queen, and she truly was more like an angel. She made me the strong woman that I am today. A couple of years passed and then here comes her cancer again. Staring us in the face. I said we will get through this. And we did but both breasts were now gone but our will was still strong. I said "Momma, He has brought you this far, he's not gonna leave you now" and she got better and there were no signs of cancer until 5 years later. This time in the lungs and she fell to her knees and cried saying "why me? why me?" I said we will get through this. On August 4th we celebrated my birthday. On August 25th she was gone to heaven. I tried riding everything in my will to make get situation better. I do my patients the same way. I always think about her and I try to make my patients lifespan so much better for them.