When our father passed away suddenly in early 2016, we inherited our Mum with what Dad had always called “cognitive difficulties”. That was obvious enough to most of us, but we quickly realised that we were dealing with more than quirky cognitive difficulties. As I had power of attorney over our Mum’s affairs, I was able to find out from her medical aid about specialist visits and so we made an appointment with the last neurologist with whom they had consulted. The specialist confirmed a previous diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease which was both comforting and discomforting. The former because we now knew what we were dealing with and the latter because we had never had to walk the road with a close family member living with this ravaging, life-stealing disease. The specialist advised us that we would “soon” need to make a decision about full-time care, either by means of full time nursing services or …
We did our best to manage her in the place she knew best – the house in which she and my Dad had lived for the past 10 years – but we were eventually unable to manage her with the disease, even though we had two full-time carers 24/7. So began our search for an appropriate place for Mum’s full-time care. Even as an adult child, it remains traumatic when one is forced to make decisions in respect of a parent who no longer has the capacity to act in their best interests. Our Mum was always a “real lady” so we had to be sure that wherever she went, she would be treated as such. We searched the internet for places and we visited a few that were close by, but none ever met with our standards. In fact, we visited a few places where we weren’t sure if we were dealing with staff members or residents dressed up as staff members. The places seemed to us to be depressing, dreary, dark and uninviting.
Then a friend told us about Midway Care Centre. We made an appointment and drove the 30-odd kilometres to go and check it out. From the time we walked through the door, we had the sense that this is the place for our Mum. It was bright and cheery, and the personnel wore crisp uniforms, smiled and engaged with us as if we were welcome guests. We met with Sharon, the owner, and we were struck by the fact that her own father is one of the residents. We left there sure that our Mum would receive the same level of care that she gave her own Dad and so we filled out the forms and enrolled Mum as a resident.
From the time that she arrived, Mum received the best of care. Everyone who works at the Centre is highly professional and copes with the quirks and difficulties of people living with Alzheimer’s Disease, with an ease and a comfort that amazed us every time we visited our Mum (we tried to visit her every weekend). Whenever we arrived, Mum was clean, her hair was done up, her nails were painted, and she had make-up on her face – aspects of her personal care that had fallen into neglect when she was living at home. Her appetite and her physical health improved as she was encouraged to eat healthily and as she exercised regularly, walking around the beautiful garden. Often, we were there when the routine health checks were done – blood sugar, blood pressure and oxygen levels and the results were carefully recorded on her file. Mum’s blood pressure improved so much that a medical doctor reduced and eventually took her off her blood pressure medication, which was starting to swing to the “much-too-low” side.
Mum made friends with some of the residents, in particular, one of the ladies who also did her best to look out for Mum’s wellbeing and gave us a regular report about Mum’s life at the home. My wife, being a very loving person, soon developed friendships with other residents and enjoyed spending time at the home with the “aunties and uncles”, listening to their stories and complaints as she would our own mother.
We appreciated deeply the care that Mum received at Midway Care Centre and I singled out the owner and the head Matron at Mum’s memorial service, stating that “there is a special place in heaven” for people such as them. I remain grateful to the entire staff contingent at the Centre for the way in which they cared for our Mum during the time that she was with them and I recommend Midway Care Centre to anyone who needs a loving, caring home and positive environment for a loved one living with severe dementia such as Alzheimer’s.