I’m from the Sandwich Generation and thank heavens for Amazon.
Sand·wich gen·er·a·tion
/ˈsanˌ(d)wiCH ˌjenəˈrāSHən/
noun
1.a generation of people, typically in their thirties or forties, responsible for bringing up their own children and for the care of their aging parents.
As I approach the ‘big 6-0,’ I’m reminded of what it was like - taking care of our family and the parents. The military precision, strategically orchestrated holidays; this one with yours, this one with mine, and we’ll get together after the holidays with them. The daily calls, visits, doctor appointments, insurance forms, wills and Power of Attorney documents. Who’s in charge? Which child makes which decision? It’s all okay until it’s not - a late night or early morning call that someone has been taken to the hospital. How soon can you get here? Bring the paperwork. Oh no, that’s not my decision - I need to consult with the others. Are your serious, you carry a four-inch binder of information? They have the electronically….until they don’t. Can you provide this again? And again? And again? Yep, it’s right here. I am one of two siblings; I’m lucky…I guess. And so is mom. Between the two of us, and our village, we’re keeping mom at home, where she wants to be. Our calendars sync like satellites; we know where ‘almost’ everyone is at a given time. Perfect? No. Works? Most of the time. Sadly, we’ve lost our dad, my in-laws and my husband. We’re a small yet mighty force!
COVID, aka the ‘Rona Ruckus,’ kicked our tails. We were seperated for the three months until we figured out what was going on. The doctors were confused along with us. Go see mom? Don’t go? Mask? No mask? Hugs? No hugs? Our mom is hugging us no matter what! This is where we perfected our Amazon shopping experiences. Need what? Let me look. This? Yes? Okay, I’m ordering it now. Ship to mom? You? Okay. Got it. We had a lot of trial and error on what items mom needed or wanted and how quickly they would get to her. I’ll share some of our ‘best’ items later on.
We still use Amazon - a lot. We shop small and local - a lot. As much as we can. I’ll always support local.