I hope you have made a good recovery in the last seven years.

Your comment is a good reminder that it’s a good idea to bring up topics that have been covered previously. Sometimes I think I’ve talked about something more than enough, but readers who are fairly new to my blog haven’t seen all those posts about the topic.

Have subscribed to you for about half a year. This is the first I have read about your stroke. I too am a stroke victium, though mine happened when I was 60 and its now 7 years later. I praise the Lord for you and your determination.

Bill

Caregiving is always difficult and takes great effort and great compassion.

Unfortunately, none of us can motivate someone else, no matter how much we try and wish we could. When I was in the rehab hospital, many of the patients didn’t go to therapy sessions or follow their diet. Consequently many who had strokes far less severe than mine didn’t recover as well as I did. When I asked the therapists about it, they explained that many elderly patients don’t have much incentive to get better. Often their spouses and most or all of the friends and relatives in the same generation have died. Adult children may live far away and be busy with their own lives. The older patients are retired and don’t have anything to look forward to except the small pleasures of their lives, such as eating favorite foods. They didn’t see any reason to deprive themselves of what they enjoyed and put themselves through the difficult challenges of therapy when they would still be alone in the world and feeling useless. So the root problem wasn’t the things they were doing or not doing about their therapy in the rehab hospital—they needed to find some interests to motivate them. Hobbies and volunteer work can’t take the place of family and career, but they can help unhappy, lonely people find some meaning in their lives. When they have meaning, they are more apt to take care of themselves.

Of course, I don’t know your aunt’s situation and would never presume to guess at another person’s motivation. But I’m speaking from experience that this general sense of hopelessness can keep someone from going on with their life.