Virginia A. Simpson

Finally, a memoir of a mother and daughter’s love at end of life. I cried. I laughed. The Space Between is a beautiful story that promises to stimulate a conversation about a daughter’s role during an aging mother’s end of life experience and the significance of compassionate healthcare professionals during that time. Virginia Simpson reminds us of a simple truth: in our last days on earth we want to feel safe and loved whether at home or in a health care system on hospice. Simpson's mother lived with her for six years and it was only when she was overwhelmed by burnout, did she place her mother into a small 6-bed private home care facility (her mother was never in a nursing home). In this astonishingly heartwarming book, Simpson and her mother were able to heal their relationship so that there was nothing between them except love.… (plus d'informations)

Anyone with an "elder" elder (those in their late 80s and 90s) relative/parent with see themselves at various points in this memoir by a daughter as she is looking back on her lifetime with her mother. In some ways her mother was fortunate in that she seemed to have her hearing and her eyesight as well as fairly good mobility right up until nearly the end of her life---not the condition the vast majority of elders find themselves in. Caregiving becomes a thankless task fairly quickly, no matter how much you love the one receiving the care---it is just too endless as well as mindless. What was and is a depressing fact nationwide was the author's search for a place for her mother---first in assisted living---totally unsuccessfully-- and finally in a nursing home when she found herself desperate. The choices were horrible--not somewhere anyone would want to be so she kept her mother in her own home for years until the final nursing home---successful probably because it was so small and very personal.… (plus d'informations)