Home Care in Indianapolis, IN

As a family caregiver, you have a unique and precious opportunity to spend extra quality time with your aging loved ones as they progress through their later years. This not only allows you to directly provide for the care, assistance, and support that your aging loved ones need, and to ensure that they can enjoy the quality of life that they deserve, but also that you are able to preserve and build your parent-child relationship throughout your experience. Building this bond and making it a central part of your care efforts creates lasting memories you can treasure long after your care journey comes to an end, and gives meaning to all of the time, energy, and effort that you put into meeting their needs on a regular basis.

By chronicling your journey with your seniors, your take advantage of the special time that you have with them and make an effort to preserve memories that may have otherwise been forgotten. This ensures that even when you are having a difficult time or facing serious challenges within your care arrangement, you remember that these are your parents, that you love and cherish them, and that one day you will want to remember every moment that you got to spend with them.

One particularly beautiful and powerful way that you can chronicle your care journey with your elderly loved ones is by making a quilt. Quilting is a time-honored craft that is about both creating something that is beautiful and impressive, and creating something that serves the valuable purpose of keeping people warm and comfortable. By making a quilt that is dedicated to the time that you spent caring for your parents, you preserve their memory and give yourself, your children, and even your grandchildren something tangible to hold, cuddle, and covering up with years down the line whenever you want to think about your seniors.

Use these ideas to inspire you for your own caregiver quilt project:

• Use special scraps. Generations ago, nothing went to waste. Women collected all of the pieces of fabric that they could find into scrap bags and used these to make quilts often called “crazy quilts” that were just random pieces of fabric stitched together however they fit. These were used for their warmth and not necessarily prized for their appearance at the time, though now people value and admire their intricate patterns and unique look. Take inspiration from this by using special scraps from your parents’ homes, such as pieces of old T-shirts and pajamas, parts of bedding that is no longer usable, or even pieces of other quilts that have fallen apart.

• Preserve handwriting. Preserve a special piece of your parents by having them use a permanent fabric marker to write their names, sign their signature, and even write out their birthday or other special information about themselves on pieces of cotton fabric so that you can integrate them into the quilt.

• Take pictures. Use an iron-on transfer to print pictures of your parents and then iron them onto fabric so that you can put them in your quilt. This is a wonderful addition to the handwriting and by scanning old images into your computer you can fill your quilt with pictures of your parents and other members of your family throughout their lives.

The professionals at Great Care are available to talk with you and your family about all of your home care needs. Great Care is a non medical in-home care agency providing quality and affordable homecare in Indianapolis, IN and the surrounding areas. Call (317) 595-9933 for more information.