Caring for Red: Care Work and Dealing with Grief, Loss, and Resolution

• In Event: 067 - Section on Aging and the Life Course Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: Table 04. Social Relationships, Support, and Carework across the Life Course

Abstract

In this paper, I discuss the work of caring for a frail elder parent, drawing from research as well as personal narrative. I include some passages from my recently published memoir, Caring for Red: A Daughter’s Memoir (released in July, 2016 by Vanderbilt University Press), which captures my experience of caring for my ninety-seven-year-old father – an actor, writer, and former labor organizer who was subpoenaed by House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s – in the final year of his life. The research I conducted for this book was, in part, inspired by what I viewed as a gap in the literature, particularly ethnographic literature on caregiving for adult parents in assisted living facilities. It was also driven by my need to write about the hard but satisfying work of caring for my elder father through the process of his decline and eventual death. I ask: How can we help our parents get the most out of their lives until the end and ensure that they are treated with dignity and respect by friends, family, and by health care and other professionals? As an auto-ethnography, I sought to connect my personal experience of loss to the universal experience of caregiving, in the context of assisted living, a housing residential model that aims—or purports—to provide a homelike environment to elders, explored by many adult caregivers seeking quality end-of-life care for their parents.

Author

• Mindy L. Fried, Arbor Consulting Partners