You never know where life will take you....
ONE DAY, YOU’RE SELLING REAL ESTATE, AND THE NEXT, YOU’RE CARING FOR YOUR AGING MOTHER AND BLOGGING ABOUT IT.
It all started with the seniors....I thought I’d sell them some real estate. Common sense says they’d be an excellent source of revenue with an unlimited and continuous supply of opportunity. Right? So I became a senior specialist, and enlisted a partner (...after all, there would be way too many sellers for me to handle alone). We created some slick brochures, held our first coffee clatch, and picked up two senior clients.
After a year of working with these lovely Golden Seniors, and watching them decline bonafide offers from qualified buyers, we realized the time/value ratio for this particular “niche” market wasn’t a good fit. We learned that seniors can be tough nuts to crack. In the most general of terms, they don’t really trust strangers and they do really hate change.
During this time, I began caring for my aging mother who lived next door. Simultaneously, I became aware that most of my conversations with friends were starting with “How’s your mom?” and ending with “Let me know if I can help.” In between, we covered previously pointless aging-parent topics like home health care, assisted living, and probate.
Talking about these things with my peers felt unexpectedly therapeutic.... like co-miseration sessions with courageous caregiving comrades. I realized that virtually all of us Baby Boomers are on the road to becoming our parents’ primary caregivers… Some of us more reluctantly than others.
50 Shades of Aging is a place to share the peaks and pitfalls of caring for our aging parents... a place to talk about the gritty emotional stuff that so often accompanies our caregiving efforts; the parent/child baggage so often still strapped to our backs, as well as the ahaa’s we get from day to day caring for Mom and/or Dad.
So, take a seat, have a read, and maybe share some of your own stories. I promise you’ll find a willing audience here at 50 Shades of Aging. Welcome.
xo
Emily