There is an official Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Presidents Day, Martin Luther King Day, Valentines Day, St Patricks Day,
Independence Day, Grandparents Day, etc. and I say we Caregivers are being discriminated against. Let us declair our own unofficial Caregivers Day. I suggest we pick a week, since we all have help at different times, and choose our own personal Caregivers Day during that week. Since it will soon be spring - a new beginning- I think the first week of April would be appropriate.

We can all choose our day to do something JUST for ourselves. Maybe lunch with a family member, a friend. Manacure, massage, shopping day, garage sale day and write here on this thread a "tell all about our day". I have been thinking about getting perm. eyebrows done. I just may do that. After all I am only 72 and it would give my morale a big boost and would be easier than losing 10 pounds. Maybe with new eyebrows they won't notice the weight.

Lets hear it for Caregiver Week the first day in April, so all who wish to participate start planning your special morale booster day.

Googling led me to National Family Caregivers Month November 2008. Since we were not aware of it, there must not have been much publicity. We need our own day, week or even a month. Good idea Imohr!

This is the first time that I have been on this site. Just from glancing, this site is a breath of fresh air for me. My husband has EOAD and it is hard. I vote for this new holiday and can't wait to see what fun others have chosen for them selves. Hope everyone has a blessed day.

mammiejammie1, love your name! welcome. its a loaded ship we have here and sometimes we get huge waves that knock some of us overboard but the others are always here to put out their hands and haul us back in! :) the more that row the easier it is on all of us...hope you see your input. jump in and let us know your story. divvi

On another AZ forum I belong to an acknowledgement of care givers was put together - this began in 2006 - here is the reminder and news release which was sent out, by one of the two original primary care givers who started this recognition campaign, for the 2008 campaign - perhaps some of you folks would like to join in - there are many in the US and worldwide who joined ........... I think Mary75 is already aware of this campaign and maybe there are other members of this forum who are as well

<quote> It's time to start talking about this year's "glow" campaign. The following is a press release - we urge you to either send it, or something similar to your local media, friends and relatives near and far.
Together we can make a difference.
We have some extra help this year - I just learned the United Nations is planning to do something on Oct 1st to raise awareness of the Glow event. I will furnish details when I have them.


“Come Glow with Us” 2008

We take everything from the TV remote control to jet engines to satellites for granted today. We reap the benefits of MRI’s , pacemakers, coronary bypass surgery, chemo therapy, even robotic surgery.

We forget the reason we have all this is because of our seniors.

Seniors' tax dollars and efforts are responsible for our freedoms, our education, our quality of life and the majority of technology and medical advancements we reap the benefits of today.

They have earned the right to be treated with compassion, dignity and respect.

Thousands of unpaid primary caregivers are working, under the radar, to make that happen.
We cannot do it alone.
We need your support.
Come Glow with us.

On October 1 - please place one string of Christmas lights in a prominent spot. Turn them on at 8pm.

Shine a light on caregiving.
Show us your support.

Then log on to www.freewebs.com/alzheimerglowers and sign our guest book with your first name and town so we can show the world that Canada cares.

We have become accustomed to living in a throw away society.
We throw away everything from electronics to food wrappers. By sticking seniors in institutions - grandiosely called 'long term care facilities' - we are throwing away our past.

Help us put a stop to this practice. Help us give our seniors the right to remain in their home, if they choose - happy and supported. Help us make the LTC’s someplace we would all like to live - not someplace where you are drugged to keep you quiet until you die.

Just as the earth is now paying for the trash build up - society will pay the the price for warehousing ill seniors instead of looking at alternatives, as the day will come when this will be our future.


Background:
The Come Glow with Us campaign was started by two primary caregivers one in Nova Scotia - one in Vancouver.
After meeting on the Alzheimer Caregivers Forum the two quickly realized government's use of unpaid family/primary care givers was not unique to their province, but indeed nation wide.

They began the Come Glow with Us campaign in 2006 commemorating the 100th anniversary of Dr. Alois Alzheimer's discovery of the plaques and tangles of Alzheimer's disease.

The goal: to shine a light on the struggles these caregivers face.

This will be the third year for the campaign, which has gone global.
In the past two years lights have been lit in Australia, Britain, Ireland, Scotland, across the United States and Canada.

Very little has changed in this nation in those three years. Unpaid primary caregivers continue to fill the ever widening gap between government sponsored institutions and independent living.

We continue to work 24/7 - 365 days a year. We are still subjected to shortened careers, balancing minor children, forfeiting retirement funds, ill health, stress, isolation, depression, poverty and are still as invisible as the ill senior we are trying to help.

We want to be seen.
You can make that happen. Come Glow with Us.
October 1 - 8pm. <unquote>

mammiejammie, hi, welcome aboard!

Tell us more about you and your husband. Let us know what we can do to help.

We have some fun threads you might like to post on, where you live, the ages of caregiver and spouse, and what your spouse did before AD reared its ugly head. I'll track those down and bring them to the top for you.

Another welcome, manniejammie, and yes, tell us why you picked that name?

Kadee, I thought surely you had found the traveling pajama's by now. I can't think of anywhere else you can look other than all the places suggested by our interested crew here.

Here it is Thursday and my "sitter" is down with a bad back so I had dh in tow with me today. Well, if all goes as planned my "tomorrow day" is still on. I volunteered to make 700 tiny easy icing flowers for a charity so that is going to happen here today.