Sharing Our Elevator Speeches
May 30 2012 in Denise's Blog, Disrupt, Your Caregiving Journey by Denise
We’ve been drafting and practicing our elevator speeches and last night we aired them out loud. We gave them a test run on last night’s episode of Your Caregiving Journey. You can listen to our show via the player below.
Thanks so much to Bette and Old Billy, who did a wonderful job with their elevator speeches, and to Marianne, our expert who gave us suggestions and feedback. We had a great discussion with Bette about using the word “dementia” in her speech; the word brings up a lot of emotions for her. I had a thought, Bette, after our show: When you use “dementia” in your elevator speech, you remind yourself how far you’ve come and how much you’ve overcome.
Please feel free to share your elevator speech in our comments section, below. And, I’ll let you know the next time we practice them on the air.
Reminder: Two shows air today (May 30). At 1:30 p.m. ET (12:30 p.m. CT, 10:30 a.m. PT), Elizabeth Lombardo joins Denise to answer the question, “Does misery love company?” Our new show, Hot Topics, airs tonight at 8 p.m. ET (7 p.m. CT, 5 p.m. PT). Join us as our panel of family caregivers chats about this personal account of caregiving which appeared in New York magazine. You can listen to the shows and join the chat room here.
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ejourneys said on May 31, 2012
Here’s my first crack (after all the paring down):
Hi; I’m …
I care for my partner, who has multiple sclerosis, but instead of the damage showing up in her muscles it occurs in her brain, and it acts like traumatic brain injury. I’ve been supporting her fulltime since 2001, but it took another ten years before she received her current diagnosis.
I could list the challenges we face, including hoarding, emotional and environmental sensitivities, and behavior that’s been mis-diagnosed as schizophrenia. They are what my partner and I deal with, but they don’t reflect her great compassion and humor. She is cognitively disabled, but she is also brilliant and loving. And despite all her changes, she is still the woman who swept me off my feet back in 1995.
Caregiving has taught me to live in the moment, because of how quickly conditions can change. It has taught me how to love in a way that I don’t take things personally. It has removed me from a lot of the window dressing that so often seems to come with “normal” life in society. Paradoxically, it has given me a fuller life by cutting away much that is superfluous.
My partner and I are isolated due to our situation. Being part of Caregiving.com has not only helped me break through that isolation, it has brought me into a community of very strong, loving, and supportive people who are working through the same kinds of challenges, including the many flaws in our medical and legal systems. We share our lessons learned, our coping tools, and our resources. But knowing that we are not alone has been the greatest gift of all.
If you know a caregiver, please feel free to give them my name and tell them about Caregiving.com.
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The 50 words or less challenge: 50 words on the nose!
I care for someone who has fallen through the cracks. My partner is an extraordinary woman — brilliant, loving, and brain damaged — who has made the world a better place for me and who still does, even on our most difficult days. Together, she and Caregiving.com give me strength.