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Thursday, June 11, 2009

How to Keep your San Francisco Mother-In–Law in Her Own Home

My mother in law lives in San Francisco. As far as mothers-in-law go, she’s a grand old gal. She lives in her own home and has managed just fine up to this point in time. Last year after my father-in-law passed away, she insisted that she wanted to remain where she was… in the same home they had shared for 50 years, in the same comfortable neighborhood.

We frequently make the 45 minute drive to her home, where we visit, do a few minor things for her and often have a good meal. About a month ago, during our drive back home, my wife confided that she had some worries about her mother.

“I think Mom should come and live with us”, she said. “She admitted to me that she fell last week getting into the bathtub. She was lucky she only got a little bruised but can you imagine what would happen if she broke something, like her hip? I’m not sure we could afford to get her into the type of care facility she would need for maybe the rest of her life. If she lived with us, we wouldn’t have to worry about her.”

I understood my wife’s concerns, but jeepers, I was not too sure that I wanted to share my home with my mother-in-law. We were quite happy on our own and now that our kids were out of the house, we were enjoying our empty nest. I love my mother-in-law but living with her was going to be quite another issue!

It started me thinking about things I could do to keep her in her own home and that’s when I remembered something I had heard about a while back… those bathtubs with the doors. I knew it would cost us a bit, but compared to the alternative of having the old gal fall in the tub and dealing with long term care, it seemed the best way out of a tricky situation.

So now I know all there is to know about walk in bathtubs, my mother-in law has a walk in bathtub and is happy, my wife is happy, and gosh, darn, I’m happy too!um2ykwrsec

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