Caregiving has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember—from when I was a child and taking care of my mom, to caring for a premature baby, to caring for my husband who developed cancer, to caring for my parents who passed away within 18 months of each other in 2021.

While caring for my parents, I often felt alone and overwhelmed. In the end, I had to leave my career in the banking industry because the support just wasn’t there for caregivers in the 9-to-5 corporate world. From my personal experiences and the lack of support from my employer, I decided to start my own business whose mandate is to provide support for caregivers. It not only gave me the flexibility to provide care for my parents, but I felt this was my calling.

Of all the caregiving I have provided throughout my life, I was most challenged two years ago when my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and also suffered a stroke that left one side of her body paralyzed. My father did his best caring for her prior to her stroke, but at that point, her care needs were more than could be managed at home and we were left with no other alternative than for her to be placed in a long-term care facility. Shortly after, my father developed congestive heart failure This meant that along with launching my business, I was advocating for both of my parents, frequenting both at the long-term care facility for my Mom and hospital for my Dad.

I have always been a resourceful person who works well under pressure; however, everything came all at once after my father’s sudden passing and losing a dear friend at the same time. There was a lot of death within six months. I felt lost and didn’t know how to help myself or who to reach out to. That is when I found Caregivers Alberta and slowly began building a community around caregiving.

I hope that, in the future, more workplaces will provide accommodations for caregivers. There are a lot of good workers out there who just need extra support to balance work and caregiving responsibilities. I would also love to see formal caregiving coaching in workplaces to guide people prior to them becoming caregivers. This is important because once we are caregivers and going through challenging times, it is difficult to have the clear headspace to know where to go to ask for support and where to seek resources.