| About 2 months ago I realized how often my mother’s caregiver would do kind things for me. Not just little things ~ BIG things, like picking oranges and juicing them, making my bed for me when my muscles are so tight I can’t bend over easily, raking the leaves and weeding the front yard……… those kinds of things.
I ALWAYS thank her, and she says she enjoys it. But I decided, since she is paid a set wage by the agency we went through, and has a large family to raise, I would put a dollar in a decorative box every time I see one of those kinds of things that she has done for me.
I have already changed out 20 single dollar bills for a $20 bill TWICE and have probably somewhere in the vicinity of $70 in there. That’s my own "thank you for your many kindnesses" box, and when the time comes (and it will, probably this year) when we can no longer afford a caregiver for my mother, I will have a box of money that will say thank you in a tangible way, and which hopefully will help to tide her over until she gets a new job.
We’ve had her for 2.5 years, and she’s like family to us. She is our own precious angel. And while I know she does these things out of kindness and love for us, it will be my chance to do something out of love and kindness for her. Because it is just a dollar every now and then, it is hardly missed. But in 6 months, or 10 months, or however long it is before the money runs out, it will have grown to quite a bundle of love………just like all the bundles of things she has done for me.
I don’t want the day to come when she will no longer be with us, because I will miss her presence terribly, but I can hardly wait to give it to her!
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