#Caretaking

Caretaking is the peculiar duty lauded as free labor for those who must play the audience in the undercroft of life’s theater. Under the banner of love and endurance, one is accompanied by the merciless musketeers of midnight cries, incontinence, and pain. While the happiness of the cared-for may increase, the sleep of the caregiver steadily decreases. Moments of gratitude fade in memory compared to instances of excuses and blame-shifting. Ultimately, compassion must be worn like protective gear; an art constantly subjected to an emotional endurance test.

Nursing is the act of monitoring a sufferer s agony while cultivating one s own exhaustion The patient s moans echo as a measure of the caregiver s endurance Lauded as indispensable devotion it often carries an unspoken debt It embodies both the symbol of social virtue and the secretly dreaded ordeal