You make the difference.

My mother, "Fancy" Nancy, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's almost 3 years ago. My sister and I are her primary caregivers and together we manage her care schedule. Through the support of lots of family members in my mother's loving community, we've been able to keep her in her home, for now, which has been her deepest desire. However, she needs daily visits and assistance to meet her needs and make sure she's safe. She can no longer drive, so she needs to be taken to the grocery store, to pick up prescriptions, get her hair done, etc..

We've created a schedule of daily visitors and it would be nice to have some financial motivation to keep the schedule going, especially to incentivize the younger mothers and teen/young adult visitors who could use a little extra cash in exchange for their wonderful service.

I'd also love to use this grant to test pilot the usage of our caregiving schedule to assist Lynden Legacy in training other grantees how to manage care in an effective, diffused model amongst family members, neighbors, and community members.

My caregiving journey budded in October 2020, before my mom was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's in June of 2021. She had also been living with an "isolated memory impairment" since at least 2010. Mom was working full-time, though her company was closing and she was to be laid off at the end of December 2020. I visualized the steps needed for my mom to search, apply and interview for a new job, and realized the gradual changes in her abilities over several years was going to make this process impossible for her. The ominous question, "Could this be Alzheimer's?", had been lurking for some time, but at this point was pounding at our door. From then on, I was dedicating every day off work, paid time off work and nights to care for her life and well-being, including early retirement planning, setting up and attending doctor, testing and diagnostic appointments, and completing endless paperwork, all the while trying to balance a new career.

Shortly after diagnosis, she moved into my home with me and my spouse in November 2021. We thrived for seven months. At the end of May 2022, there was a drastic change in her personality and behavior, not attributed to any acute medical condition or other clear triggers. Her Alzheimer's was progressing and so was the attention she required. Hospitalizations and medications helped intermittently. She was kicked out of her day program due to behavior and we could not really afford any in-home care, nor would she accept it. Luckily, my spouse worked from home and could provide general supervision to her while I worked. After work, I cared for mom. She continued to lose abilities, awareness and memories. She constantly wanted to "go home", no matter how hard I tried to make her feel at home. I made the difficult decision to transition my mom to a memory care facility in October 2023. I felt deep grief and guilt with my decision, but still thought it was the best thing to do. Unfortunately, she did not acclimate and I was visiting frequently to help provide basic care and emotional support to her. She had severely increased agitation and aggression, leading to hospitalization to re-attempt medication stabilization on November 29th, 2023 and currently ongoing. I have been abruptly thrust back into dedicating every day off work, paid time off work and nights to tend to her care planning, well-being and with a very unknown outcome, as she may not be able to return to that memory care facility. It's unclear what will happen when she is discharged from the hospital, and I am working diligently to ensure that she will have a safe place to be.

This disease has taken a lot from her, but glimmers of my mom still appear. When she sees me, she greets me with immense love and relief. I still notice and embrace the mom that showered me with such care and adoration. Despite colossal emotional and physical fatigue setting in and Alzheimer's breaking down our door and wreaking havoc in our home, I will tirelessly claim our space and love and dignify this journey for her. But gosh, I'm tired.

I am wanting to nominate my mother for the caregiver grant. My Dad is in the advanced stages of dementia and my Mom has been his daily caregiver since his diagnosis in 2018. It has been a long road. After my mom had a recent trip to the ER she realized the emotional and physical toll being my dad's constant caregiver has taken on her. She is coming to terms with needing more help and support to care for him, but wants him home with her as long as possible.

My mom's story is like so many others, but her story as a caregiver began much earlier, and in some very unique ways. My mom met and married my dad in 1971. A year or so after they had my older brother, and then 20 months later my sister. When my sister was born there were complications that ended in my mom having an emergency hysterectomy, this resulted in them having no other children. Fast-forward 17 years, in 1991 my older brother was graduating high school, and my sister was starting her senior year. A number of events lead to my mom getting a phone call asking her to care for and eventually adopt her sister's 5 children. Not only did my Mom and Dad bring the 5 of us (ages 8, 6, 4, 2, 6 months) into their home, caring for us, loving us, and giving us stability, but we came with our own difficulties some of which were extra developmental needs/delays.

So after raising her two children to almost adulthood, she started the whole motherhood full-time caregiver roll again from the beginning. Even now two of the siblings are still needing her support, one living at home, and one living in a local facility during the week and home for the weekends. I wanted to explain this part of my mom's story to illustrate that my mom has been a continual caregiver for the last 50+ years. She has stepped into each roll as caregiver with grace, willingness, and a whole lot of love. This is not what she imagined her life after retirement would look like, just like anyone else in these situations.

I am so grateful to have learned about you at the caregiver conference. That was shortly after the ER experience and was our first real look at using help outside of our family.

I met blank (age 86), in November, 2004, when he moved to Provo, Utah from Florida. I was living in the Cottonwood area and teaching in Jordan District. We became engaged in April, 2005. My youngest child was going to be married in June, at which time I would sell my Cottonwood house and buy a condo in Provo. It meant my commuting from Provo to Sandy to teach each day until my retirement in 2008. Before our marriage in July, someone very close to me did a background check on blank and found out he had always had financial problems and taken advantage of several people. After confronting him on the subject, he presented me with his "Life Principles" stating he believed in paying CASH for everything and avoiding debt like the plague. His Life Principles also stated, "If you have to use a credit card, pay it off totally the following month." These were my principles also. He reminded me he had been a Mission President and would not lie. I believed him and on July 21, 2005 we were married. It was a difficult commute for me those three years until retirement, especially since blank was hopping from job to job and had little income, yet said all our bills were being paid. However, shortly after we were married, without my knowledge, blank opened a credit card ONLINE, in both our names. A little over a year later, a bill from Capital One came in the mail for nearly $20,000. They had been sending the monthly statements to his email address and since they received no payment, sent it to our home address. I was furious and called to have it closed immediately. When he found out, he declared bankruptcy. Then the credit card bills, which I had no knowledge of, opened by blank, despite his "Life Principles" policy, began coming IN MY NAME ONLY! I told him to get this taken care of or I would divorce him. We both wrote several letters to Capital One and finally several years later, Capital One dismissed the case, declaring it was FRAUD on the part of my husband. It SAVED our marriage, but DESTROYED all trust I had in him. Yet he kept saying he would not do it again. in 2016, I sold the Provo condo and purchased a place in The Villlas at Pioneer Crossing in Lehi, where we are living now. In 2019 blank was diagnosed with dementia which is getting progressively worse in terms of confusion, forgetting names, events, or details of the present. Fortunately, he can take care of his bathroom needs. One of his missionaries comes each Wednesday morning and takes blank to his home for a few hours while I serve in the temple. But other than that, I do not leave him alone for more than an hour or so to run errands, etc. His only income is his $1300 Social Security each month which certainly does help. My income is my $890 Social Security monthly check and my monthly $980 retirement check, and a $400 alimony from previous marriage. We have a son in St. George whose daughter is one of the leads in her elementary school play the first part of May, and another daughter graduating from high school, the end of May. We would like to drive down for those events, and a few days in between, drive over to see some friends in Las Vegas. The grant money would allow us to take this vacation, OR use it in another appropriate way.

My mom is 89 with severe dementia, my dad is 87 with vascular dementia which came from a stroke 18 years ago. My mom cared for my dad for many years with the support of my sister. In 2017 my mom had a stroke and while she mostly recovered I started going to California every 6-8 weeks to help. In April 2022 I moved my parents next door to me. At the time my mom was notably declining (messing up meds, forgetting how to use the microwave) and I knew my sister with her own health problems would not be able to care for them. In the last year, mom’s capacity has continued to decline, which actually makes her easier to work with, because she allows me to help.

Every day I get them out of bed and manage all the household and personal duties. I rarely get to spend more than 30- 40 minutes at my house, at a time. I monitor the cameras while I am gone and multiple times a night to ensure they are ok. My sister lives in California and she tries to come visit which is the only “break” I get that is longer than an hour or two. Last year Date Night with my husband looks like a run to Walmart after they are in bed.

I know a need a stronger Ron and Rosa network and get the rest and relaxation I need.

Hello! I am a full-time caregiver for my mother who has been living with dementia (LWD) since 2019. She is 75 and wonderfully sweet, but cannot be left alone and would need care if I ever get the chance to go take a vacation of some kind.
I would like to go somewhere soon, without placing the burden of care on my younger sister who has 4 kids, for so many days.
I would love to get away for a week!
I turn 40 at the end of August and I haven’t been able to wrap my mind around celebrating the milestone because I know it comes with so much needed support. The grant would cover the cost of having someone stay at home with mom. Or maybe just a full week of adult daycare to decrease the needed hours from my family.

Hello, I am nominating my fiancé. She is the primary caretaker of her father. He was diagnosed at age 61, while she was 21. She was attending college at the time and immediately changed her life around when he got diagnosed. She took action to make sure he was comfortable and able to succeed in his environment. She graduated from college and started to work full-time while getting her masters. The entire time she was able to put him first.
My fiancé worked very hard to get her father in a social day program while her and the family work, but these programs are very expensive. If she received this grant, she would be able to use it for his program and take some of the burden off her and the family.
Thank you for your time and consideration. I truly appreciate what you do to help families in need.

I am a health clerk (school nurse) at an elementary school in an extremely low income area. The kids at her school come have parents in jail, some are homeless and sleep in cars, and others and just come from homes with very little resources. Anonymous, who doesn’t have children of her own, treats each one of these kids like her very own. She buys snacks and drinks for these kids with her own money for the health room so when they come see her she has goodies for them. She is an angel on earth.
She has been her dad’s main caregiver for years and moved in with him to help care for him better. Recently he was hospitalized and his health is declining. He suffers from dementia and he is needing more round the clock care. Anonymous is having to take more time away from her job to care from her dad and it’s draining her finances. She is one of the most selfless, kindhearted, deserving people I know of a grant like this. She is becoming exhausted and overwhelmed. Please consider helping her receive some caregiving respite.

I have taken care of my dad full time for the past three years. Ever since covid started I decided to bring him home instead of him staying in a nursing home. It was what I felt was the right and safest thing to do. 4 years ago he had a bad incident where he ended up in ICU for three months due to his second heart attack and other complications to his health. He has not been the same since. He has dementia and is fully bed bound. I am 7 months pregnant and still fully take care of my dad and would use this grant to help me take time off and get help for him and also bond with my newborn.

Hello, thank you for this opportunity I just heard about on Instagram. I moved to So. California in 2016, quitting my full time job to live with parents, and to help my mom, who was showing signs of dementia, with my ailing father and my youngest sister who was in a nursing home in diapers, with short term memory loss and not ambulatory. My sister died in 2017 from skin cancer and my dad passed in 2018 at age 88. I have two sisters who both live in Colorado and both work in the medical field and need their jobs to pay for family health insurance. They are the best sisters ever and try to come out when they can to help. They and other people tell me I need to get out and do something for myself. My mom fell and broke her hip in May, hitting her head, which didn’t help the dementia, and can’t do anything without assistance. Her dementia is getting worse every day and has recently asked me a couple times what my name was. I don’t really want to leave her for very long with anyone, but we used to bowl on a league together and I would like to rejoin the league. A nurse in the rehab facility suggested I call Comfort Keepers, one of the people who told me to get a life, and I found out they charge $35 an hour with a four hour minimum. Yikes! I might be able to take her with me sometimes if she feels like it. She’s incontinent and that’s what I most worry about if I take her and also the fact her back and hip hurt so sitting for that long, I don’t know. Anyway, that’s what I would use any money for. Just once a week bowling. Thank you for your consideration.

"I am the oldest of five. Sadly, we lost one of my younger brothers 35 years ago, at the age of 23. The remaining four of us are currently dividing and conquering, each taking on tasks that will allow our parents to remain in their beloved, and our childhood, home. Three of us currently live within 30-45 minutes of the house. Our sister, who lives in FL with her family, takes care of all my parents' finances, and spends at least a month every summer helping us out in the home.
My Mom has advanced Parkinson’s, is extremely mobility limited, and is showing increasing signs of Parkinsons dementia. My Dad has had dementia for a couple of years, and it seems to be getting worse by the day.
My siblings and I have promised our parents we'd keep them out of a facility for as long as humanly possible. They love their home, have lived there for 60 years, and are in familiar surroundings with neighbors who watch out for them. We'd like to not place them in a facility as change causes them both stress, and makes their dementia symptoms - confusion, anger, and agitation - much worse.
I/we would use the grant to have more caregivers in the house to help my siblings and I to get some respite, and be able to keep them in their own home for as long as possible. The extra help would relieve some of the constant back and forth trips from my home in NH to their home in MA, and one of my brother's trips from Leominster, MA to Chelmsford, MA. The extra help would also allow us the luxury of going to just visit our parents and enjoy their company, rather than showing up and being "on duty."