The theme for Week 23 is "Health." Health affects everything we do, and it was no different for our ancestors. This week, consider writing about an ancestor who dealt with health issues or one who the picture of health. Another angle would be to write about an ancestor who was a health professional.
Health is a subject that I am dealing with currently. My sister-in-law, the picture of health was diagnosed in January with Stage 4 bone cancer. She went from being the person who could not sit still for two minutes, always on the go to being stuck in bed or a recliner due to her disease. She is so weak and it breaks my heart.
Then to add to my concerns, one of the sisters, Jackie who I care for and who is intelligently disabled was diagnosed in April with Pancreatic Cancer. And since I am the one who handles everything for her and my other intelligently disabled sister, it has added a level of stress to my life. My sisters are not twins, Jenny (on the right) is 1 year, 2 months and 20 days older than Jackie (on the left).
My sisters had been living with me and my family from 2010 to 2020. When my husband retired and we decided to move from Arizona back to our home state of Wisconsin, I got my sisters their own apartment. This has been the first time they were living independently. I mean, I did all their shopping, take them to all their appointments, dentist, doctor, haircuts, etc. However, they came and went as they pleased.
When my husband and I finally found where we wanted to settle, I moved them from that apartment into a townhome in the town I moved to. They loved it. It is a 55+ community. It was quieter than living in an apartment building, which was in the heart of downtown Fond du Lac and traffic was heavy.. Their laundry facility is inside their townhome. They have a one car garage, which came in handy for us to store off season items in their garage.
My sister, Jackie is only 11 months and 15 days older than me. Sadly, she doesn’t really understand how serious this diagnosis is. One of the things I had to do was consult a genome specialist to help with treatment and this is when I realized that I might know when someone was born and when they died. However, what they died from wasn’t one thing I really looked into.
I don’t know what the future looks like for either of my sisters, and I hope my health remains good while I deal with this, because my biggest fear wasn’t really of them dying. I am the youngest of nine and we have lost two siblings already. My biggest fear was of me dying before these two sisters and wondering who would care for them in my absence. I have now reached out to the Aging and Disability Resource Center in my county and hopefully this will be figured out in the coming year.
Even though I am dealing with my sister’s health crisis, I am trying my best to find stress relief, such as through my genealogy research. Also, I am trying to take better care of my own health.
Remember to have fun and Just do Genealogy!
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