Dear caregiver…
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I can hear your heavy sigh, whether it’s from exhaustion or frustration or just plain old obligation, it communicates so much.
It’s your need to breathe, your need to let out the sadness, the anger, the unfairness, the heaviness.
And when that doesn’t work, you scream, you cry, you punch pillows, you walk, you do anything.
Because caring for them, while it might be the right thing to do
It is not easy.
And you struggle with the invisibility of it all
The multi-dimensionality
Because you’re not only caregiver, but parent, cook, housekeeper, errand person, and all the other roles you hesitate to mention, even to yourself.
In addition to your life, your work, your family, your responsibilities.
Yet somehow, you juggle it all and even when the tears come at night when you get those little moments to yourself, you still find the strength to persist
Because of the person you are and the person you want to leave behind
Sometimes you wish you were a bad person, that you could just shrug off the responsibility as others have.
Why does it have to be me? You sometimes ask.
Why indeed.
But you still keep going. Keep holding your head up.
You keep being a soldier.
Because you know no other way to be.
It’s who you are, even at your worst.
Resilience is your secret weapon.
It helps you bounce back even during those times where giving up would be better.
But you persist. Because you want to be proud of that person staring at you in the mirror. And you feel that this is the way.
I don’t know what tomorrow holds for you. Whether it’s happiness or dread. But I do know that you are amazing.
You are loving.
You are patient.
You are kind.
You are brave.
You are special.
You are a superhero.
But most importantly, I want you to know that you are not alone.
