Saturday, April 3, 2010

When Families Step Up

When Rene Talavera's father, Jesus Talavera, 69, was hospitalized for kidney and heart failure last fall, the 45-year-old Chicago resident and his four siblings were catapulted into an uncomfortable new phase of life: caregiving.

At first, Rene Talavera says, the family descended into "disarray and dysfunction." The hospital staff didn't know who was in charge. And soon after Jesus Talavera was discharged, the only family member available to stay with him was Kristopher, a 20-year-old grandson. "It was very haphazard," Rene Talavera recalls.


[Art by Chris Silas Neal]



But even as the Talavera siblings absorbed the shock of their father's illness, they set aside old conflicts and concerns to work together. "The common thread is that you all love your parent," says Rene Talavera. "It's not about you or an argument you had 20 years ago. It's about Dad and what you can do for him."

Full Article and Source:
When Siblings Step Up

5 comments:

  1. This is an important article because it stresses the importance of families working out conflicts.

    We all know "family squabbles" are open doors to guardianship.

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  2. It is our God given responsibility to help our parents. That however becomes impossible when some professional guardians, conservators and attorneys prey on our parents with assets. Then they manipulate the court system to get them under guardaianship then isolate them from their family while they liquidate the estate. Oh what a corrupt system!

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  3. A lesson here for all to pay attention to.

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  4. You're right, Lou. So many people would give anything for the opportunity to care for their parents and are denied.

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  5. I truly believe that this is the way God intended it to work.
    Enter: uncaring guardians and their attorneys only interested in making money. The ward becomes a prisoner without the closest family allowed to even visit.
    What a shame!

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