The time warp that is disability caregiving is a concept that came to me in the middle of the night. Before you categorize me as a crackpot, be assured of this:

The thought was not caused by alien abduction.
No zombies came into the bedroom and made a midnight snack of my brains.
Ditto for vampires turning my blood into an iron-rich smoothie.

Rather, the thought was the direct outcome of speaking at a trauma-informed conference yesterday. The conference was aimed at educators and mental health professionals. The percentage of educators to the mental health professionals was at least 60/40. Maybe more. As a former teacher, I enjoyed spending the day talking with “my people.”

One of them, a sweet young teacher, asked, “How long did you teach?”
“Twenty-five years,” I said.
“When did you leave the field?” she wanted to know.
“In 2003,” I replied.
“Wow!” Her eyes widened. “That’s twenty years ago.”

“What?” I thought. “Twenty years ago? Why does it feel like yesterday?”

The answer to that question came in the middle of the night. I sat bolt upright in bed, awakened by a wholly formed thought.

Because of the time warp that is disability caregiving.

And where did that thought come from?

After setting aside my theories about alien travel guides, zombie foodies, and nutritionally minded vampires, I pinpointed the real source: my personal experience with caregiving.

• The first twenty years of my life, when our family cared for my disabled father in our home and watched him slowly fade away, still feel like a hundred.

To read the rest of The Time Warp That Is Disability Caregiving, visit the Key Ministry blog for special needs parents.

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Photo by Alex Guillaume on Unsplash