Eleanor Gaccetta’s One Caregiver’s Journey is a must-read for those who want to learn about the challenges encountered by caregivers.

For the past few decades, caregiving has become a new career for many. In the United States, there are over 39 professional million caregivers. One in every six Americans is providing full-time or part-time care of an elderly or disabled family member, relative, or friend. These individuals spend around 15-hours every day caring for their patients. For those caring for a relative, it means round the clock service. We can only imagine the many challenges encountered by caregivers. For author Eleanor Gaccetta, their sacrifices deserve recognition. One Caregiver’s Journey, a book that tells her story and that of the men and women like her, who dedicated their years caring for the sick and disabled.

A Daughter’s Memoir

Published in March 2019, One Caregiver’s Journey is Elanor Gaccetta’s personal memoir that she wrote throughout nine and a half years. In this book, Eleanor recounts how she took care of her elderly mother until her death at age 102. Eleanor’s mother fell and broke her hip when she was 93 years old. This accident would signal Eleanor Gaccetta’s journey as a caregiver. She decided to take care of her mom and assume the duties of a full-time caregiver. It would take eighteen months before Eleanor decided to document her journey. When her mother suffered a minor stroke, the real challenges started to show and she felt the need to write her caregiving experiences. What began as journal entries became a book that detailed the challenges, issues, and sacrifices of caregiving. Although the book is not written from a medical personnel’s experience or perspective, it provides a real account of these issues and challenges, which in turn offers lessons and inspirations for those who are caring for their sick relative or pursuing the caregiver profession. More importantly, Eleanor Gaccetta’s unique memoir is a heartwarming narrative about faith, love, perseverance, and dedication.

Caregiving Challenges

One Caregiver’s Journey describes the challenges that the author encountered throughout the years she provided care for her mom. In one of her articles, Eleanor Gaccetta spoke about these challenges.

“Caregiving is not an easy and simple job. While the main responsibility of caregivers is to provide care to people, particularly to those who are sick and of old ages, caregivers also need to take care of themselves and to spend some time doing things outside of their duty. More often than not, caregivers need to juggle lots of different things at once (e.g. running errands, doing housework, and more) in order to fulfill their obligation. This often leaves them tired and drained, which if constantly disregarded, can lead to caregiver burnout.”

For Eleanor, one particular challenge was her mother’s limited mobility. It proved very difficult getting her to and from doctor appointments. This development became took a toll on the whole family and was the source of stress and anxiety for everyone. Eleanor was determined and asked her brother and other family members for assistance, especially in getting their mother to a lab or doctor’s appointment.

Despite these insurmountable odds, Eleanor and her family were able to overcome the difficulties and provided care for their mom until she final rest at age 102.

About Eleanor Gaccetta

Eleanor Gaccetta is from a small farming community just outside the City of Denver. After she finished high school, Eleanor, worked for the State of Colorado for more than 31 years, the last seven years she spent serving as a legislative analyst for the Departments of Human Services and Medicaid. Gaccetta then spent seven years working as a policy analyst for the City and County of Broomfield before returning to the State of Colorado, this time as a private contractor.

Eleanor Gaccetta worked to obtain both a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree from Regis University during the early years of her career.

Grab a copy of Eleanor Gaccetta’s One Caregiver’s Journey today and be inspired by her remarkable story.