#poetry #Caregivers #TerminalIllness

Facade

I am stressed.
I am close to my breaking point.
I am always the rock,
I smile and make jokes.
They all think I'm fine.
The shoulder to be cried on.

But inside I am crying.
I am wrought with fear.
I cannot speak them aloud,
As my facade would shatter.
I am not the rock I have to be.
I am simply playing a part.

When is it my turn to cry?
When can I share my fears?
Who can tell me it'll be fine,
That it will work out?
Is there no one else willing to play this role?

I was drafted, I didn't volunteer.

©2021MirandaMarch

've been quiet and patchy on social media for a while now - partly because of ongoing long COVID - which I've been transparent about - but also because my mother's dementia is worsening. Which I haven't chosen to talk openly about until now.

Dementia is a horrible terminal disease, and although my mother's has been kind to us as she still recognises the people closest to her and that is somewhat comforting as her world gets smaller and smaller, it is still devestating.

I am my mother's responsible person for everything - do your advance planning everyone! - and although we are well-organised this is still incredibly difficult and exhausting. For anyone who has waited for me to return emails or phone calls this is the primary reason, and again I thank you for your patience with my erratic schedule.

I will be travelling back to the mainland this weekend, returning next week, to help settle my mum into full-time care. The admin alone is astonishing, as those of you who have undertaken this process understand, but the details of moving a life from a home into a care facility is wrenching and fraught.

Have a good weekend and I'll see you soon,

Annetta

#GDEP #EndOfLife #Alzheimers #dementia #TerminalIllness #AdvancePlanning #care #PersonalTime #TimeOut #admin #forms #emotion #love

Paul in Coronation Street has Motor Neurone Disease.

Paul's boyfriend Billy's an archdeacon in the Church of England.

I guess Paul will die before the severity of the disease afflicts him.

(#CoronationStreet #Corrie #England #English #British #UK #UnitedKingdom #soap #soapopera #MND #motorneuronedisease #LGBT #LGBTQ #LGBTQIA #Christianity #Christian #illness #death #grief #terminalillness #terminal #2023 #Europe #European #gay #men #gaymen #ChurchofEngland #CofE)

Please take a few minutes during your #coffee break to appreciate this small, independent charity from #NorthernIreland. #Rosie'sTrust supports people so that they can keep their pet at home with them when that companionship matters most.
#TerminalIllness #Cancer #Age #Mobility #Pets #Dogs #Cats #Companionship

https://youtu.be/VK4ZEHc3lNE

Hospice care is a crucial end of life plan
A journey to take with comfort and dignity as its span
It's available to those who need it most
From a terminal illness or simply old age coast
Understanding and navigating the process is known
To provide a comfortable passage for those about to be flown

#hospicecare #endoflifecare #navigatinghospice #terminalillness #comfortcare #poetry

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/22/well/live/hospice-care.html

Florida Woman Fatally Shoots Dying Husband in an Apparent Murder/Suicide Pact that Did Not Workout as Intended
Daytona Beach Police Chief Jakari E. Young said at a 4 p.m. news conference that an elderly couple, Ellen Gilland, and her husband, Jerry Gilland, who was 77 a
https://newsviews.online/2023/01/21/florida-woman-fatally-shoots-dying-husband-in-an-apparent-murder-suicide-pact-that-did-not-workout-as-intended/
#News #criminaljustice #Florida #hospital #murdersuicide #terminalillness

Waystation Song
for @Norm-Mattox

His voice is an old voice, slow and dryly wise.
He says he is meditating again,
and finding some peace in the places between.

We talk about dying with wide eyes,
nothing shuttered, no walls.
We talk about life with the voices of
old women comparing their
wedding photos.
We talk about art like a liferaft,
carrying us over the shoals of our
bodies and their erratic betrayals.

(1)

#poem #poetry #disability #death #terminalillness #cancer #spinalstenosis

messages from something beyond
me, spreading their words into
every crevasse of my life, each
frightful mirage, every nightmare.
Now I watch my hands twist on my
wrists like they have madness and
minds of their own. Now I watch
words slip like liquid through my
frozen fingers and my skin aches for
earthen, inky reality in this space for
chemicals, barriers, needles and
the inevitability of silence.

(3)

#Poetry #Poem #Disability #terminalillness

A terminally-ill Kansas man’s hospital room was raided by cops because he used a weed vape and THC paste to ease the symptoms of the cancer that will kill him within weeks.
#medicalmarijuana #weed #cannabis #terminalillness #cancer #THC

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/police-raid-hospital-room-of-terminally-ill-kansas-patient/ar-AA15Gv03