Madrid | November 5, 2021
At Corresponsablesby Esther Cornejo and Ruth Expósito, Envera caregivers.
As caregivers we assist those who cannot care for themselves. Becoming a caregiver is something that many people do not consider as a career; for some people it is clearly a vocation, for others it is simply a job opportunity and a chance to train in it. In both cases, it is clear that once you start in this world of caregiving you understand its importance, how nice it is to help and the satisfaction it provides.
When a mother tells you that she can leave with peace of mind knowing that we will take care of her son or daughter as she would, with all the best know-how, with our love and affection, we know that we are caregivers with capital letters. That is our goal.
As in any job, there are very good days and days that are not so good because the psychological and physical burden is great. But every day, no matter how difficult it has been, is more than compensated by hearing a "thank you", knowing the meaning of your help, observing progress or seeing a smile on the face of the person you care for who cannot communicate with you in any other way.
Being a caregiver is like a roller coaster: you go in with an adrenaline rush, exhilarated by the journey ahead, but the uncertainty and fear of the next slip or cough you can't identify makes you feel like you're sliding at high speed.
We work exposed to the doubts of whether we are doing our task in the best way, of whether there will soon be a crisis that may cause Edorta to fall to the ground; that without a trigger, Eva's degree of frustration may lead you to receive a blow... But suddenly, you find in Ivan's eyes the purest affection that no one has been able to explain in words, and that gives us back our confidence and makes us feel the most special people on the planet.
Over the years we have cared a lot and we can definitely say CARE because we have put love, pampering and, most importantly, empathy. We know that our eyes, our arms or legs are yours.
We know that we have to give them all the confidence we can to make them feel that a shower will be comforting, as it is for Carmen, who cannot wash herself or dress herself.
Let feeding Irene every morning be a time for her to enjoy herself while you sing her the songs that calm and soothe her, such as "Pin Pon is a doll", which she loves.
May your support in choosing her clothes, as we do with Virginia, make her look beautiful and feel like an actress like the ones she sees in the soap operas she loves so much.
May the descriptions we give Mary of the landscape around her help her to see through our eyes the world she cannot see.
That wheeling Javi in a wheelchair is fun and not just an ordinary ride.
May it not be a Greek tragedy for Nuria to go down a ramp, and may she end up overcoming the obstacle with laughter. The success of this care and its progress elevates us in our particular roller coaster of every day.
But as part of their lives, we also witness their aging and then they forget who we were and what we shared together. That's when the music we used to listen to and play again brings a smile to some of them and in others the discharge of their anger because they are scared, because their heads are also moving farther away. We are also the comforting hand at the end of the road and we accompany them until the last moment so that they do not feel alone or lost.
Being a caregiver is also a continuous learning process. Of all of them, of the men and women with intellectual disabilities from Envera whom we accompany on their journey through life, we are dazzled by their courage to live. And that is the great lesson they give us and that inspires us to live up to it.
