Nancy Parker Brummet - Take My Hand Again: A Faith-Based Guide for Helping Aging Parents

Readers of Nancy Brummetts newest book, Take My Hand Again, will find themselves in the pages of real-life stories about families and their journeys through aging. They will be comforted in discovering that they are not alone in their mixed-up feelings. Nancy has written a practical yet hope-filled book that is sure to help both younger and older generations reexamine their roles with love and grace as together they navigate through the uncertainties of later years.

Missy Buchanan, speaker and author of Voices of Aging: Adult Children and Aging Parents Talk with God

Nancy Parker Brummett takes readers by the hand to walk with them through key issues involved in caring for aging parents, using her Christian faith to narrate the meanings of the journey. Her warm, tender approach is grounded in both personal experience and careful research. Very human stories richly illustrate aging dilemmas, resilience, loss, gains, poignant moments, grace, and a sense of purpose. Information and resources offer guidance for those feeling alone and lost in the process as well as those preparing for the future. The book could be a personal guide or a group study experience for midlife adults, all with a focus on maximizing the respect and dignity of older adults while comforting those providing care.

Sara Honn Qualls, clinical geropsychologist and author of Caregiver Family Therapy

This is the most comprehensive book on aging and caregiving Ive ever seen. It is an excellent resource for anyone facing either one or both of these issues. Great stories, great ideas, great solutions!

Dr. Helen B. McIntosh, counselor and author of Messages to Myself: Overcoming a Distorted Self-Image

A thoughtful and loving guide to what can be an emotionally fraught period of time when adult children take on the role of caregiver to their aging parents. Easy to read and full of examples and stories of how families can approach this time. We know that they will face significant life changes such as managing chronic illness or moves to assisted-living facilities. I hope that readers of this book are filled not only with information but also with hope as they lead their parents into the future.

Beth Hall Roalstad, MSW, executive director of Innovations in Aging Collaborative

Nancys words flow from deep devotion to the aging community and those who care for them. Take My Hand Again is replete with endearing anecdotes of caring for precious parents and is filled, from cover to cover, with detailed and practical paths to accomplish that care. I was deeply moved throughouttears, laughter, and resolve jockeyed for equal attention. This invaluable book will certainly find its way into the hands of my children, so that they wont miss a beat in my end-of-life care!

Alice Scott-Ferguson, speaker, writer, and author of Mothers Cant Be Everywhere But God Is, and Reconcilable Differences coauthored with Nancy Parker Brummett

I love this encouraging and helpful book, Take My Hand Again. As a young couple my wife and I took in her mother to live with us. I wish wed had a copy of this book then.

Pastor Ron Ritchie, author of Free at Last!

This book reminds us that many times along our life-walk, the path becomes obscure. We need someone to help show us the way and that someone is God. I am reminded of Proverbs 16:3Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. This book will certainly help adult children who now find themselves in a role reversal situation.

Ken & Sylvia Ringling, owners of Interim HealthCare, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Also by Nancy Parker Brummett

The Hope of Glory

It Takes a Home

The Journey of Elisa

Reconcilable Differences

Simply the Savior

Take My Hand Again: A Faith-Based Guide for Helping Aging Parents
2015 by Nancy Parker Brummett

Published by Kregel Publications, a division of Kregel, Inc., 2450 Oak Industrial Dr. NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49505.

The persons and events portrayed in this book have been used with permission. To protect the privacy of these individuals, names and identifying details may have been changed.

Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.TM Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

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To all who pray, hope, and care for the aging parents they love

I m grateful to both my mother and mother-in-law for modeling courageous and graceful aging to me. Thank you, Lois Whitehead Parker and Mary Frances Brummett, for giving me so many stories to tell and memories to share. I miss you both so very much.

Im also indebted to my sisters, Patty Watkins and Mary Slack, superb caregivers both, and to the many friends who also opened their hearts to share their journeys in caring for their aging parents. We cried and laughed together over the years, and we helped one another survive.

The University of Colorado at Colorado Springs (UCCS) Gerontology Department fed my hunger for more academic information through their Professional Advancement Certificate in Gerontology program. Im grateful for the knowledge gleaned from the lecturers and classmates in that excellent course of study.

Im also forever grateful to my husband, Jim Brummett. Im so glad we were able to help one another care for our moms and so hopeful we will be able to grow old together and give our adult children the opportunities for growth through caregiving that our moms gave us. Thats how it works, isnt it?

Finally and always, to God be the glory! It is He who urges, inspires, and ultimately creates anything that is created, including this book.

T he ringing phone jars you awake in the middle of the night. You manage to get it to your ear and the voice on the other end tells you your mother fell and is being taken to the emergency room. Or you leave a visit with your dad, and as soon as you get in the car, you put your head down and just let the tears flow. You know you cant ignore the signs any longer. Hes not doing well in his present living situation. His basic safety is at risk.

Regardless of how the realization dawns on us that our elderly parents need us to intervene in their care, we are seldom ready. Most of us with aging parents prefer the comfort of denialthat they will go on as they are indefinitely. Their lives will stay the same and so will ours. Theyll continue to make their own decisions about housing, doctors, medications, and diet, and well continue to meet the demands of our busy lives with only the occasional visit and phone call to stay in touch.