(MILTON, Del.) - Bill Sammons, founding Pastor of Eagle's Nest Fellowship Church in Milton, cares for his wife Mary Jane, who's been living with Alzheimer's for about 15 years. The disease has slowly gotten worse over this period.
"Now she's totally bed ridden pretty much. We're pureeing her foods. Rolling her every 3 1/2 to 4 hours to prevent bed sores because that's always a problem when you're in bed 24/7" Bill tells WRDE.
Every day a Visiting Angel comes to Bill's house to help. A Visiting Angel is a home health aid who comes to help provide care and do tasks around the house. David Forman is the president and owner of Visiting Angels. He and Bill both say you cannot take care of someone by yourself. David tells WRDE how Visiting Angels helps.
"We offer care from a couple of hours to 24/7 live in. We do everything from personal care, bathing, helping people get dressed, we do medication reminders which is very important, especially if you're living alone" says David.
David states that it's important for the family member acting as a care giver to take care of themselves. He says that they often get sick faster and sometimes passes away first.
"If you're not caring for yourself as a care giver, very quickly the stress becomes too much. And you're not doing a good job caring for the person you think you're caring for. And you get sick. And it happens all too often" states David.
He also says the family member can lose their role as the child or spouse, and this can be unhealthy as well.
David says sometimes people are don't want extra help. He explains that instead of children telling their parents they need the help because they can't or shouldn't be doing something, children should say that they are having a difficult time sleeping or trouble getting through their day at work, and ask if their parents will accept the help as a gift to them.
He also suggests that people refer to Visiting Angels as personal assistants since it sounds cool. "Almost everything that we do is kind of like having a celebrity with a personal assistant!" David tells WRDE.
Bill says he loves that Visiting Angels helps him keep his wife in their home.
"To me it's important that the surroundings are familiar and they get used to that and I think they function a whole lot better. I, at least it seems to me, and I think I know her pretty well, she's at peace, there's no anxiety or turmoil" Bill tells WRDE.
"She knows I'm not going anywhere, I'm gonna be here for her, and I think that gives her confidence and gives her peace. That she can relax and know that no matter what happens we're going through this together she's not by herself" says Bill.
Know someone who could use an angel of their own? For more information about Visiting Angels call 302-329-9475 or visit: https://www.visitingangels.com/