Lynn Tylczak, Home Instead

It wasn’t all that long ago (February 2018) that my 92 year old mother – a 7 time cancer survivor, indelibly independent, feisty female – passed.  It was a difficult time for our family.  Although my husband Joe and I lived only a few miles away we couldn’t provide Mom with all the assistance she needed and she “absotively, posolutely” would not consider leaving her home of 35 years.  We were so stressed, panicked, and desperate that my daughter had to temporarily leave her grad school program in Minnesota and live with Gamma for almost a year.  We didn’t know what else to do. Then one of Mom’s doctors gave us a copy of Retirement Connection and everything changed.  For example, Mom insisted on an attorney who truly understood seniors and thanks to Retirement Connection we were able to find an elder law specialist who specifically reached out to, and focused on, her age group.  Thanks to Retirement Connection we found a hospice that had a pet care coordinator – who even knew that was a thing? – to place her incontinent cats, Asia and Australia.  Retirement Connection even helped us find non-medical senior care providers who patiently and graciously provided Mom with cognitive, behavioral, functional and social support (Mom described her primary caregiver as “the second daughter I never had”).  Without Retirement Connections’ clear, concise (but complete), easy-to-access info we could not have found the exceptional people and programs that made Mom’s last few months a positive-as-possible experience.  Thank you from the bottom of our less-stressed heart muscles.