The ATA Chronicle - September/October 2022 - 19

The Best Laid Plans
I sat on the end of the bed
in my parents' guestroom,
facing the small folding
table that held my laptop,
and began the day's work. A
few minutes later, my father
walked in.
" There's my girl, " he
beamed, and started chatting
about this and that. Then
he stopped mid-sentence
and exclaimed, " Oh, you're
working! I'm sorry, I'll let
you get back to it! " and
left. Fifteen minutes later,
he walked in again and the
scene repeated. In fact, it
repeated several times that
morning. That was the first
sign that my plans might
need to be revised.
The second sign came just
before noon. As I bent over
my work, proofreading a
rush translation, my mother
came in to say that lunch was
ready. " I'll be out in a bit, " I
told her, " There's an anxious
project manager in Houston
literally waiting by his
computer for me to finish. "
The full authority of
motherhood flashed across
Mom's face, she drew herself
up to full height, and told
me firmly, " No. You need to
call your client in Houston
and tell them lunch is on the
table. They'll wait. "
For a split second, I was
five years old again, being
told I couldn't go out to play
until I ate my peas.
But I hadn't been five
years old in decades.
Instead, my father had been
diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
My mother was in the early
stages of an unspecified
dementia. And the brilliant
plans I had made so I could
work from their senior living
facility while caring for them
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during extended visits were
crumbling all around me.
Have Computer,
Will Travel
It isn't unusual for
freelancers to end up as
caregivers. To varying
degrees, we're the flexible
ones in the family. Most
of us, at one time or
another, have been or will
be caregivers of some kind.
Over the years, I've read
our colleagues' discussions
online about caregiving, the
challenges they've faced,
and the solutions they've
found. Whether raising small
children or caring for the
chronically ill, whether we
live with them or just near
them, most of the challenges
seem to be the same:
y Meeting our loved one's
needs without losing our
business
y Finding time for self-care
(and accepting that we
need it)
y Knowing when to ask for
help and how to find it
But when that loved one
has any form of dementia,
there's a twist: For the
remainder of their lives they
will never not need care, and
their needs will never be static.
Backups and
Redundancies
My brother, Steve Moore, is
also a freelance translator.
Once our parents' medical
conditions began to
manifest, my siblings and I
moved them from their home
near me in Texas to a senior
living facility in our parents'
home area in northern
Indiana. There, they could
start out in independent
living, then transition to
assisted living or memory
care as needed. Steve lived
a mere 10 minutes away.
He and his wife (a nurse)
would help my parents with
their day-to-day needs,
like doctor appointments,
grocery shopping, and so
on. I would provide respite
care, traveling from Texas
to Indiana to live with my
parents for days or weeks
at a stretch, several times a
year. Our sister and brother
served as sounding boards
from afar and weighed in on
major decisions. There were
other friends and family in
the vicinity who could step in
for short periods. This gave
us multiple levels of backup
care, and over the years we
used them all.
As their live-in respite
care, I would need to be able
to work from their home.
Backups and redundancies
were necessary there as well.
y The closet in the guestroom
held a stand-alone monitor
so that on each visit I
would have my usual twoscreen
setup without the
need to transport one of my
desk monitors.
y Projects were not only
stored on my laptop, but
were also saved regularly
to a large-capacity flash
drive. If my computer
failed during a late-night
work session, I could use
my parents' computer to
finish the job or contact
my client.
y Their internet service was
part of the facility's Wi-Fi
network for residents.
It worked fine, until it
didn't. I bought a prepaid
USB satellite stick for
my laptop. That put a
When someone
has any form of
dementia, for
the remainder of
their lives they
will never not
need care, and
their needs will
never be static.
secondary connection at
my fingertips.
y And finally, I set up
remote access to Big
Momma, my desktop
computer at home. When
the computer-assisted
translation tool on my
laptop developed a glitch,
I was able to email the
updated memory file
to myself, access the
program on Big Momma,
and finish the job, leaving
the software debugging
for later, when there was
more time.
Communication
With any form of dementia,
things are always changing.
There isn't a lot of
predictability as to when
or how, either. Because of
that, clear and constant
communication is vital.
Part of that communication
came at the start. At the time
our parents moved close to
him, Steve still had a preteen
daughter at home. He and
his wife discussed with her
how Grandma and Grandpa's
care might impact his
availability. I sat down with
American Translators Association 19
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The ATA Chronicle - September/October 2022

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