Susan Schmidt (caregiver)

I have been a caregiver since 2013. My mother is 95 and is suffering from dementia, incontinence, and has to be in a wheelchair. She is a resident at the Roosevelt Care Center in Edison, N.J. My mother needs me desperately. I try to visit her three times a week. When I go there she is so happy to see me that she cries. I love her dearly but this is taking it out of me. I have two brothers and a sister but they don’t live in New Jersey. Even though she is in a nursing home there are a lot of problems to deal with. A lot of the time this is the most rewarding thing that I have ever done in my life and other times I just want the whole thing to be over with. It is very difficult to be the one and only primary caregiver. I have health problems of my own (panic/anxiety) and have a hard time handling everything that I have to do.

– Susan Schmidt