| My twin brother, Gene, and I had always
planned that we would do everything possible to see to it that our parents
stayed in the home in which they’d lived for over 40 years. Since Gene and
my parents lived in Alabama and I lived in Texas, he would be the one to go
by and check on things and I would handle the financial matters. Then Gene
died at age 54 and all our plans went out the window. My parents were both
85 and my Dad was showing signs of Alzheimer’s disease. I begged them
to move to Texas; but their roots were in Alabama and they desperately
wanted to stay there. When I needed to spend the time grieving for the loss
of my twin, I had to face the daunting task of moving my parents to an
assisted living facility and selling their cherished home. My Dad never
could understand that he no longer had his home. I had to go through the
heartbreak of watching him, in his confusion, try to go back to his home
over and over again until his death. Had there been someone there that I
could have trusted to monitor care that was being provided in my parents’
home, I could have comfortably agreed for them to stay there. I just didn’t
feel that I could risk someone robbing them or abusing them in some way.
With no one to monitor the care, that could have easily happened.
 When I discovered
Visiting Angels, I knew that it met a growing need -- the need to bring
loving, professional care to families who need it. If I had had the option
of hiring an Angel and have trusted professionals supervise their work, I
wouldn’t be carrying around the regret that I have today. While it’s too
late to help my parents, it’s not too late to help someone else’s parents –
maybe yours.
Visiting Angels is my way of honoring my parents, Robert and
Kathleen Fox, by helping someone else to keep their parents in their home.
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