As Our Parents Age So Do We

My parents live about 100 miles away from my home, and their assisted living community is locked down and not permitting visitors. The goal is to keep the CoVid-19 away from the residents as much as possible. I feel nothing by gratitude for the kindness and dedication of the staff. Preventive care at its best.

My parents about a year ago with me, my husband, and my cousin.

It also means that my husband and I cannot visit my parents, age 92 and 96 who are in the highest risk group. While I know that, during an epidemic, it’s important for my parents to be in contact with as few people as possible, it is frustrating for this adult child because I cannot think of enough ways to stay connected.

So how do I keep communicating and connecting with them? In a sense, doing things that keep us connected is a type of caregiving. I only wish I had many more ideas, but here are a few of the steps I am taking:

• • • I am calling my parents every day and sometimes twice. Trying to use Facetime or Skype is too complicated for them, so we’ll make do with phone calls.
    • Tomorrow I will start mailing a greeting card with a note for them to read, and I’ll aim to do this every other day or so.
    • Perhaps I can a small recipe of cookies and mail to them, perhaps once a week or every ten days.

Other ideas are welcome! Communications of all sorts of alternative ways will be so critical during this period of social distancing!