The joy of being 18 months old is that you don’t have to worry. You will be taken care of. I have taken care of others all my life. For the last 17 years I was caregiver to my Mom and then my brother Reid. Reid passed away on Saturday January 15th. I am still reeling and crying. I’m trying to take care of the last of the arrangements to get him cremated and informing everyone who needs to know about his passing.
Now family and friends are telling me I need to take care of myself. Sounds good but I’m not sure how to do that any more. With the jobs I’ve had as well as taking care of family and getting them through various crises I’ve been taking care of others for a long time. When Dad died Mom turned to me whenever she had a problem. I tried to help my older brother Mike but he was a Vietnam chaplain’s assistant veteran. It took years but Vietnam finally killed him. He turned to the bottle to try and cope with the nightmares. I helped to raise Mike’s only child and my niece Bernadette and she is happily married now because I told her she had to give Kevin, who she met on Match dot com, a chance. I had both of her older children living with me. So family always came first.
So now I am by myself. I only have Princess Pixie to care for. I’ll have to move to a smaller place and that will have to happen soon. Maybe when I’m in a place that is just mine it will be easier to cope.
Now I need you advice. Seriously I’m not sure what taking care of myself means. What do I actually do to take care of me? Help me transition from being a Caregiver to just me.