Tanna Marshall

Eight years ago as my father was dying, he asked me to move in with my mother and help take care of her. She didn’t need much caring for at the time, but I believe he was thinking long term, probably thinking forward to the point where we are now. I’m happy to do it – my parents have done everything for me and spoiled me rotten my entire life so this is the least I can do. Taking care of my mom is not always easy, but I consider it an honor and an adventure in making her life as happy as possible. As I have learned in my caregiver support group, I have two jobs when it comes to Mom – make sure she feels loved and that she feels safe. Mom is 83, blind in one eye, has early stage Alzheimer’s (or “Old Timers” as she calls it), dementia, diabetes, high blood pressure, congestive heart failure and arthritis. I know. All things considered she’s doing really well, in my opinion, and I like to think that I’ve helped her maintain a quality life. We get along really well and enjoy each...

Things happen once in a while that we hadn’t planned on, but it’s our perspective on the situation that makes all the difference in the world. We’re supposed to enjoy the journey and sometimes there are bumps in the road. No big deal. This week I had a little bump – literally – I was rear-ended. Nothing major, not a lot of damage, no injuries. Just a little unnerving and a gave me a little headache. I like to look at the events of my life – good and otherwise – to figure out why I attracted them, because we create, attract and invite every thing that happens to us with our thoughts, energy and feelings. No exceptions. It's the Law of Attraction. A very insightful friend helped me with this one. It’s been a bit of a tough week emotionally. My mother has emotional meltdowns once in a while – it’s all part of the dementia and Alzheimer’s – but last week was an ongoing series of low days for her, requiring a lot of me to keep her up, happy, active and engaged. So when the weekend came,...