Celina Raddatz quit her job at a nursing home in 2014 to take care of her mother full-time who, 83, suffers from Alzheimer's.
Raddatz, 57, and one of her sisters, Rosalia Lizarraga, 61, had been1their mother together. But as the Alzheimer's2, the task became too stressful for Lizarraga. The full3fell on Raddatz, who was determined to perform a promise she and her siblings(兄弟姐妹)had made to their4as children.
"When my mother was5, she made us promise never to put her in a nursing home." Raddatz says. "But we never thought she would get6like this."
Raddatz was born in Mexico. Her mother, a widow(遗婉),7 two children as a food seller after they moved to America. "My mom was a very8woman," Raddatz says. When Raddatz was growing up, her mother quit her9so she could stay home and keep an eye on her children. "She would take us to school and bring us home. She wouldn't let us walk10to school."
Raddatz and her siblings first began to notice their mother11in 2005 after she had a bad fall while12as a housekeeper. In 2006, Raddatz's mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
"It's just13work. I need to care for her around the clock." But anyhow, she14her job at the nursing home and15her mother in with her. They also share a bedroom,16Raddatz can assist her mother when she wakes up throughout the17.
"It's a18responsibility because of the promise we made her when she was younger," Raddatz says. It used to19Raddatz to see families leave their relatives with this disease in a nursing home. Now she has a personal20for the emotional(情感上的)and physical sacrifices that caring for an elderly loved one takes.
