Can you show more detailed instruction on what exactly Fred is doing? Is he lifting her from the car or just holding her forearm in case she loses her balance? When she enters the door, again is he lifting her or moving the walker forward? If he is lifting her, how does he place his hands for support? Thanks! Looking forward to the next video

Kim, sorry I didn’t give enough detail. Yes, Fred is lifting Gladys from the car and helping her get stable on her feet before he leaves the walker.

When they get to the door, he tells her to lift her right foot first because her left leg is not strong enough for her to lift herself up. While she is trying to lift her left leg, he puts his hands under her elbows to support her and hold her up while she lifts her leg.

Hi Valerie,

I’m actually envious (in a good way). Your house is built so that Gladys doesn’t have to navigate stairs. She also has functionality on both sides of her body, which is so great after a stroke.

Our issue is that my dad is weak on his entire left side, not wanting to do a whole lot to try to strengthen that left side. So his mobility is severely limited in our home. Moreover, we live in a split level house, so no matter what, walking up some stairs is required to get to the main level, and my father is deathly afraid of the stairs. So the farthest he’s been out of our house in a while is our back deck.

We’ve talked about renovating our downstairs so that my dad’s bedroom will be on the same level as our garage so that he won’t have to navigate stairs at all. But that takes a little time and financial resources.

I thank God that Gladys has the mobility she does have. You’re able to get her out on a regular basis. We’re praying for the same thing for my dad. It’s been a year August 8th that he had his stroke.

Thank you for sharing.

KWiz

@KWiz, We are thankful that we have this ground level entrance to a living area in our townhouse, but Gladys is on the first level by herself. In hindsight, when we downsized, Fred and I should have purchased a ranch style home to accommodate our elderly family members.

I said something similar to someone about our house, that we should’ve purchased something a bit more navigatable; to which she said, it was right for us at the time we bought the house, which was over four years ago. For me, I’d never thought I’d be taking care of a parent. Never in a million years.

Thanks, Valerie!

Actually, I thought Gladys did very well. She has a lot of will power, that’s clear. She must have been strong and graceful in her better days. She did not slump into her chair but sat down very nicely.
Question: Why the two walkers?

@ Hattie – I had to laugh when you asked about the two walkers. Why does she have 2? I don’t know.

Have you ever heard the story about the woman who would buy a ham for Thanksgiving dinner, cut the end of the ham off and then put it in her baking pan? The woman’s daughter asked her why she cut the end off and the lady said, that’s the way my mother did it. When the woman asked her mother, the mother replied “my baking pan was too short so I had to cut off the end of the ham.”

The two walker thing – that’s the way my daughter did it when she was taking care of Gladys.

@Judy – A simple solution to an exasperating issue.

It did cross my mind that maybe the outdoor walker was considered not clean and so you would need another one for indoors.