Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Today Is A Good Day To Talk About ALS Caregivers

Yesterday we read about JetBlue flight attendant Steven Slater's meltdown.
If you read far enough into the articles, you saw that Slater's father recently died from ALS.
Without regard to your feelings about air travel or passenger and flight attendant behavior, this is a perfect day to talk about ALS caregivers, especially those caregivers who lose a beloved family member to this disease. ALS is a particularly demanding disease, and caregivers not only deal with the physical demands, but they also face a daily realization of the loss that ALS is perpetrating.
Today is a good day to talk about ALS caregivers. If you hear anyone talking around the water cooler about the JetBlue flight attendant, it's a perfect day to talk about ALS caregiving and ALS orphans.

1 comment:

Dick Millet said...

I am an ALS widower. I was sole caregiver, sole breadwinner and father of our four children through almost the entire term of my wife's illness. I have had a couple of meltdowns in the last eight months since she died. ALS is a brutal disease and exacts a physical and mental toll on everyone caring for an ALS patient. The disease takes and takes and when it has taken the life of your loved one it leaves wreckage behind that isn't easily put aside. Many families are financially ruined by the experience. Young children are often left behind as the disease strikes many adults in their 30's and 40's.
I used to be the most mild mannered guy you would ever want to know. Now, I have no patience for petty people, "authority" figures or anyone else with an inflated ego. Watching someone slowly killed by ALS gives one a somewhat different perspective on life.