Yesterday mattered too, of course, and tomorrow will no doubt be important. But today is probably the day that matters most of all – until tomorrow! Today is the result of all the ‘yesterdays’ that prepared us for the rest of our life.

We meet today’s challenges by using past life experiences and our built-up reserves of mental, physical, and financial resources, discovered and developed as we coped along the way. Confronted with a new problem, those past responses and resources rise to the top of our minds, and we find the best way forward. Maybe it’s not that easy for your partner, though?

Alzheimer’s can cause lots of tricky and sometimes unexpected responses, even to everyday happenings, as you may well have discovered! For example: there’s a coffee spill on the carpet and your partner starts rubbing it in with a tissue; probably not the best response!   So, you get my drift – no doubt you have faced that sort of thing? It’s those unplanned reactions from a partner that can test our resourcefulness…. and patience.

They are the small daily ‘happenings’ that stretch our minds as a Carer. And even minor ones can affect our attitude, our behaviour, and perhaps our temper. Just a simple event can easily develop into a major problem when your partner immediately tackles an activity in an unexpected, maybe even a dangerous, way.

Situations that needs an instant solution can easily and quickly become a challenge. Most of the time you will have anticipated and learned the best practical ways to contend with most of those happenings. You will develop strategies, you will learn patience, you will try to keep a clear mind, and you will cope. If things are becoming difficult, tiring, frought, you simply must recognise that you need help. Talk to family, your doctor; check the resources listed on this site. Don’t wait. You are no help if you are stressed and tired.

Being a Carer is a commitment that requires an almost constant focus on the moment. That can mean a high level of alertness and a mindset known by the experts as a ‘coping mechanism’, but everyone knows that it’s otherwise known as ‘love’.

Love is the mighty power that provides, maybe not all the answers, but a goodly portion of the solutions – it’s the ultimate resource, the coping trick that will get you through today. And today, and each new day, may well turn out to be the most important day of your life.

Warm and sunny, cold, and wet, everything shipshape, everything wrong; life is like that. And we just get on with it; usually, or sometimes, finding happiness in just quietly mopping up the spillage with patience and love and a dry cloth.

So, yes, today does matter! Enjoy every moment you can….

Written by Bill, without AI interference – just a spelling check!