Ukraine

Gig Harbor

Can you imagine how incredibly hard it would be to live with a PWD in a country going thru an invasion? It would be so hard to watch them and try to explain what is going on and we won’t even think about incontinence. Thruout it all them see so stoic and gracious and patient.

abc123

They are on my mind constantly. The entire country.

Paris20

It is heartbreaking and anger-provoking at the same time. I saw a piece about Ukrainian  Holocaust survivors who are unable to leave their homes and apartments because they are alone and infirm. To experience the horrors of war initiated by an evil, unhinged maniac twice in one lifetime is too much. I cannot imagine what will happen to Ukrainians with dementia. It’s hard enough watching mothers holding onto babies and fleeing. That can’t be done with someone in the more advanced stages of dementia. It’s horrifying for those poor people.

Ed1937

That's one of the first things I thought of when the invasion started. We probably all envisioned ourselves being there.

French

It's just on the other side of Europe. It's scary here. 

For the last 2 years, we have been living in a strange world where our certainties are falling one by one. 

RobertsBrown

I have to limit how much of the news on Ukraine we watch...because my gal is so deeply affected.  She does not understand that this is not happening in our house.

Imagine if it were.

M1

I’m having the same issue Roberts. As much as I am a news junkie I am going to have to lose the evening news TV habit and block the 24 hr channels on the set in her bedroom. Another loss of normalcy…I’m feeling a bit like the frog in the pot these last few days. But war in the living room is too much heartbreak right now for both of us.

DrinaJGB

I simply cannot imagine what they are going through.I saw a story about them gently transporting disable children and it made me cry.  I have limited the news a lot, but I have given to my favorite organization World Central Kitchen as I always do after and during disasters.It's not much but the best I can do for them.

Jo C.

Off with my Peer Volunteer hat:

This too was one of the first thoughts I had.  I cannot imagine trying to manage a LO who has  dementia in such a nightmare.   There is so much need in so many ways.  I did see two news reports on the crowds waiting for a train; in the background on two different reports there was a frail elderly person leaning hard against a wall trying hard to stand upright with a cane.  My heart is filled with such sadness; the children, the elderly and the ill and infirm . . . so much anguish.

When New Orleans had the dreadful flooding from Katrina, we became very active in helping.  The needs were great.  One thing that seems to always happen, is that when clothing is donated, it is most always for smaller sized people.   There are larger sized people who find nothing available. The American Assn. of University Women in my area rose to the occasion, buying larger sized items including bras and panties from catalogs and donating them.  My daughter who lived near an evacuation center in Texas and brought items to the center said when she was able to give one woman  who was larger size a package of new panties, she broke down crying at receiving them.  She was a person who had been wearing the same pair she had when slogging through the muddy water up to her chest.  I try to remember those in different sizes including providing wide width shoes for women and men.

I know how important shelter and food is a first as a basic priority need, and it is bitterly cold and snowing.  I also feel concern about the basic hygiene items so necessary; sanitary pad supplies for the women,  adult diapers and pullups, diapers for toddlers and infants, and the cleaning cloths for addressing accidents.  This sounds like so little, but it is SO much and so important.

One other thing has brought concern to my mind:  There are so many people from other countries who have arrived with their cars and vans; they are offering to transport people out of the camps and to their homes and other areas.  Some are righteous kind people . . . BUT . . . they are not vetted.   There is as can be imagined, multiple risks in such a situation.

It appears someone is building their own historical legacy for the history books in a chapter on national leaders titled, "Names Forever Written In Infamy."

I am trying to find the charities to donate to who are best serving here and now on the ground where the people in dire need are. 

J.

DrinaJGB

World Central Kitchen.

CaregiverHelen

I think about those poor people in the Ukraine every day and what evil they are enduring. So upsetting to watch. It can make our every day challenges pale by comparison. And the elderly and disabled? What unthinkable horrors. Putin is a madman.

M1

This is a very old thread....March 2022.

Jo C.

Old thread brought up and solicitation which is against AlzConnected policy.