Help Lisa Marshall take a break

Many of you know, love and follow Lisa Marshall, the blogger and amazing writer who has poured her truth out on her Blog, 'Oh Hello, Alzheimer's' about her gut wrenching story about my stepdad's awful young and progressive disease.

Lisa is my mom and my best friend. My stepdad, Peter, as most of you know by our public openness on the disease was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in his EARLY 50's. 

My mom has taken care of Peter for the past couple years as the disease progressed and she has quickly become a fulltime caretake. She has been an amazing support and caretaker for her entire family and so many friends throughout her life. Watching the caretaking position take a toll on her is so hard, and everyone that loves her wants to help. Unfortunately, Peter doesn't feel comfortable with many people aside from his caretaker, Collin who comes over for a measly 3 hours out of the entire 168 hours per week. So, when friends, family and loved ones ask "How can I help?" there is truly no answer other than giving her a break. If we can give her a break, she can continue to be the best caretaker for Peter.

Long Term Care Insurance is taking forever to kick in, and COVID is ramping up, so leaving the house isn't the right thing to do anymore. Without the option to do normal social activities due to COVID and be around their support system, I felt it even more necessary to create this aside from how my mom would feel about it. I want to give my mom some peace and kindness back for all of the kindness she has given to everyone else and provide her with time to recharge so she can continue to be the most patient caretaker for my wonderful stepdad, Peter. 

Every $25 that you donate gives my mom ONE HOUR of a break. You're giving her an entire hour that she can reserve a caretaker for. Just to give you a breakdown, having a caretaker come over for only ten hours per week costs $12000 per year. If we can give her ten hours per week, she can have time to take a bath, relax, write, think about herself for a few hours. I'd like to give her more, but I'm starting small!

So, for all of the incredible support system who has reached out to us and our family asking "How can I help?" This is how! Give my amazing mom time to be and find herself again. Thanks SO much for reading this and don't forget to follow her amazing, heart wrenching Blog- Oh Hello Alzheimer's.


Photography by Cait Fletcher Photography