Grateful

It has been stressful couple of weeks as my family has been dealing with aging parent issues. It is  hard to be prepared for the onslaught of emotions that goes along with this. I believe my 86 year old mother said it best yesterday when she declared (and cover your ears if you are sensitive to rough language ) “Life is so beautiful in the beginning. Babies are perfect and wonderful. And then old age comes along and it's so f......ed up.” My mom, never one to mince words.

And along with the onslaught of emotions is the the onslaught of systems to deal with in order to make sure everyone is safe and well (hospitals, nursing homes, medicare, etc.).  Fortunately with these systems has come some incredibly helpful people to assist in navigating them. And being “G” week in the ABC's of Kindness, I was reminded that expressing to people that you are grateful for the great work they do just can't be done enough. I made sure to write thank you notes to the social workers and case managers who have helped on this difficult journey, letting them know how very much they are appreciated.

And I was also grateful for this blog for giving me the extra push to make sure that I didn't just think about writing the notes, I actually followed through and did it.

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My sister came up with a clever idea to express her gratitude to the employees of the pharmacy who have been helping her manage my folks' medicines.  When she tried to find a way to let the "powers that be" know what a great job the employees were doing, the most accessible means of communication seemed to be through the complaint department.  Not to be deterred, she filed what was probably the first ever compliment through that department, which was promptly forward to the supervisors and employees in the pharmacy, who were, of course, delighted.