“Why isn’t there a handbook on taking care of parents when they get old?” someone recently lamented to me. You know, like the handbook parents don’t get when a baby is born, there should be a handbook on caring for aging, ailing parents, and for helping us and them as they go through the dying process.
An aging, ailing, and dying parents handbook could certainly provide some useful information so that baby boomer “children” don’t have to re-invent the wheel on taking care of parents who once took such good care of us, right? Afterall, we’re a generation not known for wanting to extend any extra effort on our own behalf. Okay, I’m being cynical here, but still.
As it turns out, there are many books on taking care of elderly parents. One I particularly like, and one that is endorsed by AARP no less, is “How to Care for Aging Parents” by Virginia Morris. Published by Workman Publishing, New York, it’s available through Barnes and Noble. It is a full range handbook that covers a wide array of topics including: healing old relationship wounds, finding healthcare providers, healthy aging, physical body changes, mental and emotional changes, nursing homes, spiritual needs, finances, elder law, and even dying what to do next.
As the cover says, it’s chock full of answers to “questions you hoped you’d never have to ask”. So if you’re wishing you had a great handbook on how to care for your elderly parents, check this one out.
