Join Kate Doran, owner of Savannah Power Yoga at this Friday’s yoga relay and party on the outdoor patio of our Edel Caregiver Institute, 6000 Business Center Drive. We are excited to have Visiting Angels and Service Brewing Co. as sponsors. There will be a terrific silent auction, appetizers and adult beverages following the relay of 100 sun salutations. This event is suitable for all levels of practitioners – grab a few friends and make a relay team, or do the gentle chair yoga version.
Why is Kate spearheading this fundraiser for the 2nd time? Her story is an interesting one…She says, “I am a caregiver advocate and Edel Caregiver Institute supporter because of my personal caregiving journey with my mother-in-law Linda, who decided to move to Savannah after being diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer.The memories have faded a bit in the years since, but I remember the joy and the tears from that time. I would get up each day and do simple things – make breakfast, dole out medications, give a sponge bath and help her take care of things that no 63-year-old should need help with. I cut her toenails and brushed her hair and did lots of other tasks that we don’t like to mention in polite company.
I remember feeling privileged to be asked to care for Linda during such an important transition. I also remember being angry that I never got more than a few hours of sleep and guilty for leaving the house for more than an hour. I can remember being so exhausted that I would pick fights with my husband about nothing in particular. Not being a mother, I had become a caregiver for the first time at the age of 41.
While my meditation practice served me well during the times we simply sat together, the rest of my yoga training in self-care went out the window. I stopped getting on my yoga mat and emptied my tank physically and emotionally on a regular basis, leaving me irritable and unreasonable around almost everyone, including Linda.
What would I change with the help of hindsight? I would have been better prepared for the inevitable and I would have taken better advantage of the many services that Hospice Savannah provides for caregivers – not just for the patients themselves. So I was delighted when in 2015, this beloved community not-for-profit opened the Edel Caregiver Institute, a first-of-its-kind center dedicated to supporting family caregivers long before hospice care is ever needed.”
Pre-register here or sign up at the relay this Friday, August 18 at 5:30 p.m.