Time to Care: Families find more options to keep elderly parents at home

By Jason Lesley
Coastal Observer

Dot Matthews of DeBordieu says the time has come for her to care for her 97-year-old mother.

Jo Cerami suffers from dementia and needs her daughter and son-in-law, John, now.

She has gone from being the caregiver to the recipient. After her husband died in 1976, Jo moved in with Dot and John in Florence to help care for their seven children. “It was me who needed her at that time,” Dot said. “I had my own company, working 24/7. John was working. We needed help. I would stop in at her house, and she’d be crying. She had nothing to do and didn’t have a whole lot of friends. I asked her if she would come and help me so there would be somebody there with the kids when they got home from school. Now she needs me. Turnabout is fair play.”

Dot is granting her mom the wish that almost every aging person has: to remain at home. It hasn’t been easy. “Dementia comes on very slowly,” Dot said. “I didn’t realize what it was. My friends noticed it before I did.”

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