Eleanor Gaccetta’s One Caregiver’s Journey talks about taking care of you and your loved ones who need caregiving.
The duties of family caregivers vary according to the person they are caring for. They commit their time to help their loved ones live every day and have a safe and healthy life. They address the patient’s physical, emotional, and social needs, carry out routine medical procedures, administer medications, and transport patients for doctor’s appointments.This article talks about taking care of you and your loved one in need caregiving.
Caring for an aging loved one has likely felt more challenging than ever in recent years. The pandemic posed an increased risk to seniors. With fewer opportunities to gain support from friends or family due to lockdowns and self-isolation, family caregivers have been forced to ‘make do’ and cope in the best way they can. Whether seniors reside in their homes or a residential assisted living facility, the practical, social, and emotional challenges thrust upon family caregivers have been vast and varied.
Goal Setting for Family Caregivers
This year, prioritize taking a moment to reflect on the common goals of family and professional caregivers. Goal setting is an excellent way to establish a clear plan of action. It will help your motivation to write down clear, achievable goals for the entire year of 2023. These goals might be focused on improving your loved one’s care, taking care of your mental and physical health, or making life practically easier for you as a family caregiver while meeting the needs of your loved one.
About the book: One Caregiver’s Journey
This is a MUST-read book written by Eleanor Gaccetta. The author’s personal memoir will make you laugh or tug at your heart as the author shares her experiences of being a 24/7 hospice care provider to her mother for 9 ½ years until her mother’s death at age 102. The book is an easy read, honestly written, and provides suggestions and information that all caregivers can utilize. Eleanor wrote the book over a long period, and it is a snapshot of the reality of the stages, changes, and many challenges caregivers face over time. It is a caregiver’s blueprint. Reading this book, you will feel you are in the author’s living room, and she is telling her story and offering an abundance of advice and information.
The Book’s Impact on Readers
“Not only did Eleanor keep her mother at home until the very end, she did it with joy, love, optimism, and faith. She managed to find humor in situations that most of us would never be able to handle. Filled with many good tips and advice, this book is a must-read for anyone who is caring for or thinking of becoming a carer to an elderly friend or relative. An honest and impressive book. Her devotion took my breath away.” – Lucinda Clarke of Goodreads.
“Gaccetta, a second-generation Italian, grew up in a community of small family farms where, she writes, “the village was close-knit and the success of one family equated to the success of them all.” She does not shy away from using humor and employs the device liberally and intelligently. This is true both in the writing of her memoir and caregiver guide, as well as throughout the day-to-day interactions with her mom. For example, chapter titles such as “100 Ways to Repeat the Same Question” and “How to Ensure Brain Damage and Help a Neighbor” capture attention with their witty phrasing. She shares her tale and that of her mother with dignity, candor, an abundance of practical information, and anecdotes of both the blessings and the difficulties of full-time caregiving. “– Jonah Meyer of US Review.
Author’s Bio
Eleanor (Ellie) Gaccetta, MBA is an author, speaker, cook and baker. Formally she was a legislative and policy analyst for the State of Colorado, the City and County of Broomfield, and after leaving government she was a private contractor. Ellie’s almost forty-year career ceased when her mother fell and broke her hip at age 92.
Thus began Ellie’s own journey of being a 24/7 sole caregiver for her mother for the next nine-and-one-half years. During that time her book One Caregiver’s Journey was born with personal memories, insight, and advice for caregivers. The book is a snapshot of the realities, changes, and challenges of caregiving. During the six months after her mother’s passing at age 102, Ellie journaled about her reintegration back into the world. “The biggest challenge to reintegration after 10 years of isolation has been to not be an outsider looking into the world that passed you by.”
Ellie’s next book, Generations of Good Food, wasn’t planned. It was a labor of love that consumed her time during the pandemic. It incorporates recipes, stories, and anecdotes from six generations of her Italian family. It is a book for the kitchen novice and seasoned cook and baker.
Today she lives in a suburb west of Denver where she enjoys spending time with family, cooking, baking, and gardening. During the pandemic she committed to remaining healthy, getting in shape, and staying fit. After the pandemic she walks 2 miles daily and has become a gym shark.
