CONGRATULATIONS TO HIPPIEGIRL52- VOTED THE WINNER OF THE FULLEST LIFE CONTEST!

Hippiegirl52 will receive an iPod shuffle, a $50 iTunes gift card and an Eons sweatshirt!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the contest! We received so many moving posts, and heartwarming comments to the winners. We look forward to doing another community contest soon.

HippyGirl52's winning post:

I saw this contest on Eons front page and quickly dismissed the idea of submitting because you will think I am insane as I write this. I am a Caregiver for my husband, a sweet, British gentleman who I met in my 20’s when he was a neighbor. Fifteen years ago, we married. And then, we decided to live happily ever after.

For the first ten years of our marriage, we socialized and traveled, had a large circle of friends and the house where everyone came in Scottsdale, AZ. We traveled to the UK and Europe, cruised out of each port off the US coast and made several trips north and south to Canada and Mexico. We traveled cross-country 3 times by car, taking those leisurely trips where you plan to take 3 weeks to get from Arizona to Vermont, singing ourselves hoarse to our own mixes burned into cd's while we stopped to see “everything interesting along the way.”

We had everything that a marriage could have and we absolutely felt each other was our own “gift from God.” But then, a fall, some shoulder surgery, a small stroke, 90% recovery and gratefully back to “almost normal” for a couple years and then, his dementia started.

At first, it was just a nod or a pause and I could fill in the words and people didn’t know. After all, the “old boy had a few years on ‘im” but then it got worse.

What I knew about dementia would “fit on the head of a pin and still have room for the Lord’s prayer” at this point but I became an expert. And then, it got worse. All your education cannot prepare you for watching someone you love struggle day-by-day with the progression of this disease.

So, how can I ever talk about this being the “fullest life”? I have learned more about myself in the past few years than I did in the fifty that preceded them. I have learned that:

 When you care for a sick person, you are the lucky one. I would not want to be sick and dependent anyone.
 When you say those words “better or worse, sickness and in health”, you really better love the person.
 Family and friends thin out and it hurts but you are left with a few of very best people after all.
 When you are exhausted, you sometimes wake up praying.
 You can comfort someone and replace their fear of losing your mind with joy and laughter.
 The days when the “fog clears” – and we talk, are better than any day we’ve had before while we were traveling.

I will never be the person I was before. This is a life-changing experience but I know that I am using every skill I have learned throughout my life to get him the care that he needs, to support us, to make our decisions and to get ready for what lies ahead. Fullest life? Yes, right now, this must be my destiny. I truly feel that I am helping someone move from the human to spiritual side and I am not sure if it is that dear man or me.