Caregiving Quotes

“Affirmations are our mental vitamins, providing the supplementary positive thoughts we need to balance the barrage of negative events and thoughts we experience daily.”
― Tia Walker, The Inspired Caregiver: Finding Joy While Caring for Those You Love

“If you need to reach me, or send me anything I'll hopefully have access to email, but who knows how alert I'll be...Please don't ask too many questions about what the logistics look like, or where and when I'll be where and when- we just don't know that right now and will not for a little while. FOR INSTANCE:

Good message: Wish Max well! No need to reply!

Bad message: When is Max going to the bathroom, and in what city -- I'd like to bring my schnauzer to visit him; he's a good luck healing massage schnauzer from Ireland. Is Max going to die? How often will Max die? Can he attend my event in four months?

I love all of you very much, and am extremely grateful for your support.”
― Suleika Jaouad, Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted

“In compassion we seek to be aware and care about the suffering of others. We seek to bring Enlightenment to all beings everywhere. This is complete selflessness, the Bodhisattva ideal.”
― Ajhan Samvara

“I didn't want my exhaustion to burn through my empathy. How terrifying was this loss of electric power superimposed on the powerlessness of aging and disability? I could not fathom it and tried not to be judgmental about my parents' reactions. How did it feel not seeing well to begin with and then functioning by flashlight? How did it feel to depend on others for your heat, water, and food?”
― Patricia Williams, While They're Still Here: A Memoir

“I never really wanted to be a professional; all I knew was that I wanted whatever I did to matter. I believe writing matters, of course, but nothing has ever felt more real to me than the work of caring. That energy and effort to maintain—ourselves, our loved ones, our community—has always felt substantial, true, visceral, and, yes, real to me. I don’t believe care work has to wreck us. This labor can be shared, social, collective—and transformative.”
― Angela Garbes, Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change

“There is nothing as appealing as a mouth full of gratitude, and a heart full of compassion.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson, These Words Burn Like Fire

“The beauty of caregiving lies in your uniqueness, potential for self-assessment, and openness to personal growth.”
― Eboni Ivory Green, The 7 Pillars of Successful Caregiving: Things No One Tells You

“My dad lived such a beautiful life that I know I do not do him justice by focusing on the manner of his death....I think about how he lived,”
― Eboni Ivory Green, The 7 Pillars of Successful Caregiving: Things No One Tells You

“Todas las familias son diferentes, pero me he fijado en que, en muchas ocasiones, detrás de cada exhausta mujer madura cargada de responsabilidades que se ocupa de sus padres cuando envejecen suele haber un par de hermanos varones que no tiran del carro. Supongo que no educamos a los hombres para que acudan al rescate cuando surge una crisis familiar.”
― Caitlin Moran, More Than a Woman

“Here’s the thing with photos of people you’ve lost. They become coloured by a melancholic tint — it’s as if all those joyful moments were lies. As if the happiness of the captured memories were some sort of illusion.”
― Mitchell Consky, Home Safe: A Memoir of End-of-Life Care During Covid-19

“Sex differences are also apparent at the level of narrower ability facets. For instance, women outperform men in memory for object location -likely as a result of selection for gathering skills- and tend to use different strategies for spatial navigation and wayfinding. Another major axis of sexual differentiation is that of mechanistic versus mentalistic cognition. In general, females perform better in mentalistic tasks as decoding nonverbal behavior, interpreting emotional expressions, and attributing beliefs and other states of mind. This advantage in mentalizing -especially in one-to-one and small-group interactions- is likely due to the higher demands posed by the complexity of female competition, and women's primary role in caregiving.”
― Marco del Giudice, Evolutionary Psychopathology: A Unified Approach

“Sip a cup of tea slowly
and slide into a sleep
that carries you
back to those softer days
when I cradled you
in the curves of
my consistency.”
― Jenny Noble Anderson, But Still She Flies: Poems and Paintings

“The significance of living longer is the caregiving never ends.”
― Joy Loverde, The Complete Eldercare Planner, Revised and Updated 4th Edition: Where to Start, Which Questions to Ask, and How to Find Help

“you don't need to heal others to heal yourself, you can just heal yourself. you do not need to give love to others to love yourself, you can just love yourself.”
― Kai Cheng Thom, Falling Back in Love with Being Human: Letters to Lost Souls

“I gave my mother her first bubble bath in years, but she passed out in the tub. Great, I try to do a good thing and I kill my mom. At least she smelled good.”
― Mark Steven Porro, A Cup of Tea on the Commode: My Multi-Tasking Adventures of Caring for Mom. And How I Survived to Tell the Tale

“One day she asked, 'Why do you treat me so well?' 'Because you're my mother and you deserve to be treated like a queen.' After finishing her tea she burped. 'But queens don't do that." She smiled and said, 'How do you know?”
― Mark Steven Porro, A Cup of Tea on the Commode: My Multi-Tasking Adventures of Caring for Mom. And How I Survived to Tell the Tale

“One day she asked, 'Why do you treat me so well?' 'Because you're my mother and you deserve to be treated like a queen.' After finishing her tea she burped. 'But queens don't do that.' She smiled and said, 'How do you know?”
― Mark Steven Porro, A Cup of Tea on the Commode: My Multi-Tasking Adventures of Caring for Mom. And How I Survived to Tell the Tale

“Neither of my parents swore. When Mom got mad, she’d say, “Nincompoop, I’m fed up,” or if absolutely furious, “I’m so angry I could spit.” When Dad got angry, it seemed like food came to mind. He said things like “Chowderhead,” “You’re full of soup,” or he replaced “hell” with his favorite meat: “Get the ham out of here.”
― Mark Steven Porro, A Cup of Tea on the Commode: My Multi-Tasking Adventures of Caring for Mom. And How I Survived to Tell the Tale

“Somehow the conversation drifted to G-string bathing suits (or as I call them, “anal floss”). We talked about their popularity and who would—or who should not—be jumping on that fashion bandwagon. Mom was completely in the dark. “What’s a G-string?” she asked.
The girls described them in detail.
“G-string,” Mom replied. “I’d need two Gs.”
― Mark Steven Porro, A Cup of Tea on the Commode: My Multi-Tasking Adventures of Caring for Mom. And How I Survived to Tell the Tale

“Teach the children early to plant trees, and when they grow old, they will never consider to plant bombs.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson, These Words Burn Like Fire

“A simple first aid skill learned in peace can save a life in chaos.”
― Gonca Yıldız Taş, The Golden Rules of First Aid: A life-Saving Guide for Parents and Caregivers

“The kindest and best caregivers are those who realize that it could easily be them in the weaker one's place; they do not distance the one in need by making them an "other.”
― Pamela Cox

“Companionship is more than a presence,
it’s a steady, compassionate embrace that walks beside you, through every season of caregiving and beyond.”
― Beth M. Sutherland

“From my book,
CARE FOR THE CARER,
AN ALZHEIMER'S MEMOIR

"Is there a cure?" Jane asked repeatedly.
This simple sentence had several possible meanings:

Jeff, I'm slipping, hold.
Jeff, I'm sinking, save me.
Jeff, I'm scared, protect me.

I wanted to hug her or even to pick her up and rock her in my arms....to tell her, "I'm here with you always," to admit myself, "I'm scared too.”
― Jeff Camhi

“There is no 'normal' caregiving situation in which everything goes just as planned. You do the best you can with what you've got. And you know what? That's good enough.”
― Eboni Ivory Green, Journey Beyond the Yellow Brick Road: Finding Your Emotional Home as a Caregiver

“I wanted to keep her from slipping out of my life.
I wanted to squeeze the Alzheimer's right out of her.
I wanted us to be who we once were.
None of that could happen.
But at least, from that day on, when words alluded Jane, hugs took their place.

From CARE FOR THE CARER, AN ALZHEIMER'S MEMOIR”
― Jeff Camhi

“From CARE FOR THE CARER, AN ALZHEIMER'S MEMOIR

'Is there a cure?' Jane asked repeatedly.
This simple sentence had several possible meanings.

Jeff, I'm slipping, hold me.
Jeff, I'm sinking, save me.
Jeff, I'm scared, protect me

I wanted to hug her or even to pick her up and rock her in my arms...”
― Jeff Camhi

“Close your eyes and open the windows of your heart to reflection and introspection as it is the first step to healing your soul.”
― Eboni Ivory Green, Reflections from the Soul: Acknowledge, Ruminate, Be Inspired

“You can’t pour from an empty cup — rest is not selfish, it’s survival.”
― Latora Crawford, The Caregiver's Balance: How To Show Up For Others Without Losing Yourself

“F. incorporated a line into his wedding vows: "Love is not a feeling; love is put to the test." Though Wittgenstein meant something quite technical here (he was making a point about grammar), it struck me that the way in which F. understood this sentence—love being meaningless until tested—was also correct. When I'd wash my mother's dishes and fix her computer, or lift her walker over the saddles of doorways, I'd think of this line proudly, like I had passed.”
― Peter Mendelsund, Exhibitionist: 1 Journal, 1 Depression, 100 Paintings