A Helping Hand

Do you know anyone with an aging parent who has kept many keepsakes?

The question today is how do you lend a helping hand to an aging family member who has trouble letting go?

When you reach a ripe age of 99 everything can start to be a challenge. Just getting yourself fed and dressed can be a couple of hour event.

When you are trying to downsize it can be difficult to take the next step when memories surround you. What do you do with old yearbooks? How about family albums, remember those old fashioned books?

It can be a multi-week project but you have to begin somewhere.

Find a friend or family member and pick a pile. Its important to work with someone to help let go.

Go back through the memories then see if it is anything you will ever look at again. See if you can pass on the photos to a family member. They may be able to digitize them.

For the yearbooks or memorabilia, is there any place you can donate? Historical societies might take yearbooks or old bibles or books.

Move on to the next group of items. Is there any china that is worth any money? If so you can reach out to an antique store to see if they have any interest. You can get help to post things to eBay or Craigslist.

Facebook has marketplaces where you can sell things inexpensively. Connect with someone on Facebook and become a member. You’ll find things will go quickly if you price things right.

Letting go can be the most difficult part of the process. A helping hand is needed for acknowledgement and encouragement to help the person let go.

Private Home Health Care knows that it can be so difficult to let go of “things” that are part of your former life but the right helping hand can be just what is needed.