Sandra Forsey’s mom was an only child, which fueled her dreams for having a family of her own.
“I think she always just wanted a family so badly that family was always number one for her,” Sandra says. “I can remember as a little girl her constantly sewing me dresses and sewing Barbie clothes for me so that I always thought of my mother as having the purest type of love; giving to other people.”
Things began to change with her mother’s health a few years ago. Sandra noted that her mother began to lose things and would call to say she couldn’t find her car keys. From there it escalated.
“One night I got a call from the Sun City Posse,” Sandra says. “So, I go to pick her up and as we are driving back to her house she says ‘you know, I don’t know why I couldn’t find my way home. I know I live in Idaho.’”
Sandra’s mom had not lived in Idaho for 35 years, and Sandra was really concerned about her and what might happen in the future.
“I don’t ever want to find out she is a Silver Alert because she’s just taken off to find where she grew up,” Sandra added.
Sandra found Sun Health’s Memory Care Navigator Program though one of her clients. The client’s wife is a person with Alzheimer’s disease and he had full care of her. Sandra mentioned the changes happening with her mother, who had recently moved in with her.
“He just lit up and said ‘are you aware there is a Memory Care Navigator,” Sandra says. “He spoke so highly of it, so I went online and started reading about Sun Health and I just felt like it was such blessing to me.”
The website was a one-stop resource where Sandra could find information during an emotional and overwhelming time.
“I was trying to try to figure out what do I do next, how do I do this without burning myself out, and how do I best serve my mother,” Sandra says. “I realized that it was a perfect fit for what my needs were and I felt the confidence also because I am aware of Sun Health. So, I called to get an appointment.”
A Memory Care Navigator came to the house and assessed the living conditions, asked a few questions and very much built a comfortable setting for Sandra’s mother.
“She was just such a wealth of resources, some of which I wasn’t even aware of or had thought through,” Sandra says. “It has given me the security of knowing first when things begin to change more rapidly with my mother I know somebody to call and somewhere to get help.”
Sandra was amazed when she found out that a program with so many available resources was offered at no charge to the community.
“She explained to me that it was through donations to the Sun Health Foundation, Sandra says. “And to me, that is a humbling feeling when I thought of the goodness of people.”
