Anna is 49 years old. She is cheerful, beautiful, and her elderly mother believes Anna is a living angel.
Each morning, Anna wakes at 5 A.M. to make the coffee. While the coffee perks, she visits her mother’s bedroom. “Wakey wakey!” she says, breezing into the room.
Next Anna throws open the curtains and smiles. Then she helps her mother out of a hospital bed. Her mother is not able to walk due to hip issues.
Anna lifts her mother, then carries her into the shower using brute strength. She positions her mother in a specialized shower seat, undresses her, bathes her from head to heel, then brushes her teeth.
“Anna is my lifeline,” Anna’s mother tells me. “My daughter is an angel.”
After the bath, Anna lifts her mother into a wheelchair. She then dresses her mother, fixes her hair, administers medication, and kisses her mother’s face. “I love you Mom,” Anna reminds her mother, just in case her mother needs to hear this.
Then, Anna parks her mother near the television and starts breakfast.
Later, Anna doles out more meds, then clips her mother’s toenails, carries her to the bathroom, or pays her mothers bills.
By then, it’s about noon. A friend usually comes to sit with Anna’s mother while Anna goes to work.
Oh, yeah. By the way, Anna works full time.
After her long shift, she comes back to the apartment, and her night has just begun. Before she changes out of work attire, Anna cooks supper, then cleans the house. The night ends when she carries her mother into the bedroom. There, she dresses her mother in a nightgown, gives more meds, and reads to her.
“Sometimes Anna falls asleep beside me,” her mother says. “She’s usually very exhausted after all that lifting.”
The next morning, Anna does it all again.
Carl, in Atlanta, does the same thing with his dad. Carl bathes his father,…