Now, three days a week, Johnson drives from South Dade to spend the day. She reads the newspaper aloud to John, who sits beside her in a wheelchair, silent and immobile. Though he can't speak, Johnson talks as if they're having a conversation, lovingly touching his arm. And 70 percent of caregivers found they developed an inner strength, according to a 1998 report by the National Family Caregivers Association. Still, no one pretends that caring for loved ones made frail by disease or age is easy.
Caregivers face wrenching decisions, intimate care and physical exhaustion.
For many, it's a heartbreaking ride. In a quiet, soothing voice, Morano tells them to sort through their feelings, careening from anger and despair to frustration and depression. I cried a lot. I cried in my room, in the car, everywhere. In the beginning, neither she nor Dick understood that strokes caused his startling personality changes.