Respite is not giving up
If you have been doing this alone for two years, an afternoon a week is not a luxury. It is how you keep going for the third.
July 3, 2026
From Finding Dora
smcginnis
Plain writing about caring for a parent at home in Edmonton: funding, winter, dementia, discharge day and the rest.
The standing visit: same day, same time, same person
For someone who has not spoken to anybody in four days, a visit that always comes on Tuesday at two changes the shape of the week.
June 26, 2026
The Alberta grant that pays for housekeeping, and respite in a care centre
Special Needs Assistance for Seniors covers light housekeeping at home and short respite stays in a care centre for lower-income seniors. Few families...
June 19, 2026
Your care manager, and how to reach them
Every client has a named care manager with a direct line. Here is what they do, when to call, and what happens after hours.
June 12, 2026
When your mother does not want a stranger in the house
Refusing help is reasonable. Most people do not want to be bathed by someone they met yesterday. The way in is through something else.
June 5, 2026
Cooking real food for one person who says they are not hungry
Appetite goes with age, with grief and with being alone at the table. Meals that get eaten are small, warm, familiar and shared.
May 29, 2026
The first two weeks home after a hip fracture
What the days actually look like, what tends to go wrong, and why the second week is riskier than the first.
May 22, 2026
How to talk to your brother about your mother’s care
One sibling lives ten minutes away and does everything. The other lives in Calgary and has opinions. Here is how to have the conversation once, proper...
May 8, 2026
Photo albums, old music and the parts of memory that stay
Long-term memory often outlasts everything else. A shoebox of photographs and a playlist from 1962 can do more than any medication for an afternoon. ...
April 24, 2026
Eleven quiet signs your parent needs more help than they are admitting
Nobody announces that they cannot cope. They just stop doing things, and the house shows it before they do.
April 10, 2026