Navigating life that sandwich generation

Two months before my wedding, my soon to be husband received a call from an emergency room near his mother. She had come with bad flu symptoms, and they wanted us to get her and take her home so she would not be in itself lead. When we arrived, it was immediately clear to us that it was completely mentally impaired and simple flu could not be the explanation. After much insistence and outreach stories, we got her evaluated by a neurologist. She had one of the worst cases of viral encephalitis doctor had ever seen.

When our marriage arrived she was in rehab recovery treatment. The brain injury caused by the encephalitis, unfortunately, climbing his next big health crisis of Alzheimer's disease. Over the next 10 years, my husband started slowly taking on most of his care and manage its finances until we finally put it to a facility that could take care of its growing needs.

Meanwhile, one thing that helped us immensely was quite unexpected. There is evidence that many years ago, just after her husband died, my mother-in-law bought a very, very good long term care insurance policy. This allowed him to have a support home care for many years, and has helped place it in a better house when the time came. It was a great blessing for our family

This was never clearer than this past January when it was my turn. I get a call from my mother's doctor saying she was in a meeting and clearly had a kind of very severe pneumonia. My mother suffered a deep hypoxia (lack of oxygen to the brain), which was originally changed it to be combative and mentally, and she resisted going to the hospital.

coma After 10 days induced medically two months of rehabilitation, and six months of my mother being out of work, my husband and I almost lost our house trying to (and us) to stay afloat financially. My mother has long-term zero care insurance, no disability insurance (she is Assistant Professor), and little in the way of savings. Finally, we have addressed the problem by triggering social security of my mother early and having its movement with us. We adapt to being a family of four now; I secretly think my daughter likes to have her grandmother all the time. I do, too often. We run a little during the night time television. But we will survive

The contrast between the two scenarios is striking, and it is because my mother-in-law was smart and purchased long term care insurance early. she was in her late 40s. We brought the subject with my mother, but we met some resistance; she thinks the long-term care insurance is equal to the nursing home. We try to correct this misconception; the long term insurance would actually be much easier to keep it at home, after all. At 43 now myself, it is something my husband and I on our "list" when our finances recover this year.