Carolina Songbird: (Active Peer Volunteer since January 2009)
"I'm here because my Mom has Stage 7 vascular dementia. She's in a skilled nursing facility (SNF) with Hospice assistance. My dad lives nearby and visits her daily. He does not understand the disease or her other medical problems, so I am the medical interface. Increasingly he is relying on me for other things as well, since his memory and reasoning skills are slipping. I am starting the process of getting him tested for diagnosis as well, since it is hard to know if this is just depression and stress (they're been together 54 years) or something else. So I have one foot at each end of the journey, so to speak. The time demands of caring for hubby, dog, Mom, Dad, and oh yeah, ME have forced me to give up many volunteer commitments, but being an online peer volunteer is one way I can contribute and make some sense out of what our family is going through on a time frame that fits that "phone may ring at any moment" life.
I have lived in the South all my life and now live on the border between South and North Carolina. My husband is a professional speaker, and I develop much of his material and handle his marketing, sales and administrative work. I like to refer to my past as "checkered," because I have done many things: managed a family practice, sold real estate, worked for the Chamber of Commerce, catalogued books for a library, taught college, and was an editor and reporter for two different newspapers. Every job gave me some small skill I can use in my current job as "quarterback" for Team Mom.
As a peer volunteer, I hope to make others feel less alone and to help them find their way to the knowledge and resources they need to help their loved ones."
