50 Ways to Love Your Mother
Gift Ideas for Aging
Parents and Others When All they Need Is Love
Jane Monachelli, M.A. L.P.C.
This is a delightful little guide for choosing and sending gifts to the elderly when they are in down sized situations (nursing home, care center, group home, one room in your own home, etc.) When our aging loved ones are in these situations they do not need any more stuff, but they do need many acts of kindness and signals that they are being remembered and cared about.
This guide was put together by a 25-year psychotherapist when her own mother was living across the country and going through the stages of downsizing. Jane became an expert at finding gifts and thoughtful acts that could be sent and/or done from a distance that kept her mother's spirits bolstered during the extremely hard experience of losing ground and living space. There are 50 vignettes with descriptions of the gifts and ideas followed by 800 numbers and web sites addresses to make the process of gifting easy to accomplish.
This is a perfect gift book when your friend is going through the hard time of placing his/her parent in assisted living. The book acknowledges the strain your friend is under and gives great and fun ideas for staying close to one's parent. There is also a bibliography that lists books helpful to the caregiver in terms of how to take care of oneself during this challenged time.