After my sister’s stroke her future looked bleak.  The United States does not have a program in place to help people recover from strokes.  We stablilize them medically and ship them off to home or an institution with a “what if” mindset.  What if I had moved back home to live, would I have been on the floor for 2days? What if I had married whomever, would I have less complications from the stroke because I would not have been by myself? The “what ifs” don’t help heal the brain but having a network of  health care providers, neurologists andjust plain volunteers do help to heal and become independent again can help.  

My sister was a solo ager, a person who is unmarried, no children and lives alone.  Solo agers should not be penalized w poor health and poor recovery from major illness because they are by themselves.  There are millions of people in the US.  Noone should be aging alone. 

I became one of my sister’s caregivers.  Hence the post title, “A Caregiver Too Soon.” I had just been recovering from caring for my Mom for over five years and still caring for my older husband.  I wrestled w God when I was given the task to help my sister recover.  I was like Jonah in a sense, not wanting to obey God for the greater good.  Unlike Ninevah my sister was not evil; I was just tired.  Caregiving costs our strength and can contribute to poor health if the caregiver does not have help and frequent breaks to rest.