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HUMANS 101
For the Sandwich Generation, Life Is Often a Cascade of Crises
They say to put on your own oxygen mask first. When the hell am I supposed to do that?
We were waiting for X-rays. When I got home from work, our 19-year-old cat was hobbling on three legs, gingerly hoisting a back foot at a pathetic angle. I’d rushed her to the emergency vet. She howled. My heart couldn’t take losing her now, though age and reason factored it a possibility.
About a month ago, my father broke his hip — this is likely why my mind leapt to that particular, catastrophic breakage. The time since has been a relentless, daily cascade of practical duties (did we empty their fridge? Turn off the cable?), calls to coordinate care, repetitive calls from one parent who forgets the conversation moments after it’s been had, and another in respite care I can hardly track down due to her new social schedule. After years basically shut in their house due to limited mobility, the sheer freedom of a single, flat floor, ready wheelchair, and social activities have meant my mother is experiencing joy and fun she could not have in their rickety, old home.
One is a mess; the mess is saving the other.
