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How to hire a senior caregiver who really cares

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For adult children trying to provide good care for an elderly parent, Rosemary McClure’s tale reads like a nightmare:

My friend’s phone call numbed me. Twice in the last week, she said, she’d seen my mother sitting in a car in a neighborhood near her home. “Today she was there for more than two hours in the heat,” she added. My stomach churned.

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Mom suffered from dementia; she could no longer drive, or even speak coherently most of the time. She hadn’t gotten to the area my friend was talking about on her own. It had to be Ann, her caregiver, who had been “taking her to the park” almost daily. The next day I skipped work and followed. When she parked in front of a house, I waited 20 minutes and then went to the door. Ann’s boyfriend appeared when I rang the bell.

“Tell her she’s fired,” I said.

You can read the rest of McClure’s story in her the latest It’s All Relative column on caring for and staying connecting with aging parents.

Illustration credit: Blair Thornley / For The Times

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