Karen G. - Saint Louis Senior Caregiver

Profile of Karen G.

Part-Time, 0 Years of Experience

Hello, my name is Karen. It was just a few years ago that I used the term Alzheimer's as a humorous way to describe a moment of forgetfulness. Today is different.
I am 55 and my mother Sue, has Alzheimer's. She is 78. Five years ago, my step-father died and it was at that time that my mother's illness became evident. My brother (the practical one) realized that mom could no longer live alone. After a lot of research, and hard work by my brother, we found a beautiful retirement home where mom could socialize, make friends and live happily ever after. I am the only daughter and worked out of state. I had just remarried so moving home to help mom seemed out of the question at the time. So sadly, we sold mom's house and most of her things. She was devastated and her mental health took a downward spiral. We moved her to an assisted living facility. It was new, beautiful and most importantly, safe. Well, we may as well have put mom in prison. At the time, I believed with all my heart that mom could get better and live a full and independent life with the right medicine and patience, love and support. The problem was that I lived in Dallas and mom lived in St. Louis. Stubbornly, and being the sibling with the idealistic and impulsive nature, I did not give up until, I found a small house and moved mom out of the assisted living facility. Thus, began a journey of long distance care giving on weekends. As you can imagine, my brother was not at all happy with this decision. I had a difficult time finding a caring person to help out with shopping and meals. "Home Helpers" were nice but they had a quick turnover and a different person every couple of weeks only upset my mother more. The situation grew more stressful with each day.
A year passed, and with the support of my husband, we bought a house a block away from my mother's and moved to St. Louis. We both commuted to Dallas to work every week. The company I worked for allowed me to work from home three days a week and travel two. For another year, I tried to juggle care taking and working full time. My efforts gave mom more time at home until one day our worse nightmare turned to reality. Mom went missing. We were lucky and the police found her and brought her back to us. After that, we moved quickly to place mom in assisted living. She is now in skilled nursing (stage seven of Alzheimer's) and continues to decline with each passing day. I eventually had to chose between moving back to Texas to work or losing my job. I chose to stay in St. Louis to be near my mother.
After months of soul searching, I decided that I wanted to do something I love while helping others in return. My passion has always been cooking and preparing meals for my family and my experience as a caretaker made me realize there must be others that are in the same situation that I was in three years ago. People with early Alzheimer's are able to stay in their homes longer and maintain their independence if they have help with shopping and meals. I decided to become a certified personal chef and place my focus on helping families and patients with Alzheimer's. I would like to connect with families that might be able to use my services.

Profile Details:

• Female
• 56 years old
• 0 year of experience