You can see the joy in Jill’s eyes as she talks about two things: her love of crocheting and her excitement for meal planning. With a variety of produce and meat, Jill brings her parents food from the Hastings food distribution once a month and helps her parents cook. Her father was a former grocer, so the family loves to brainstorm recipes the moment the food comes through the door.
“If it’s cabbage, then we think is it going to be a cool slaw with fish? Mom likes cabbage and noodles. We love pigs in a blanket. So especially when we get the ground beef and the cabbage, then we know what we’re doing,” said Jill.
The 59-year-old caretakes for her two homebound parents full-time. For her, caretaking is a labor of love, and can take a toll financially, physically and emotionally.
“I do a lot of running chores. So it’s pharmacy stops, grocery stops, food pantry stops, hardware stops, postal stops. I mean, it’s a lot of errands and chores. And then I get there, it’s unload dishwasher, dish drain, put dishes away, planned meals, bedding.”
“It’s heartbreaking because you still look at them like they’re in their 50s, 60s, 70s. And when conversations repeat and when things are forgotten, when activities can’t be completed, I mean, simple tasks, it just breaks your heart over and over and over again.”
Jill says worrying about her parents takes priorities, but she worries over her own bills. Car troubles are draining her savings. She’s been able to budget rent until the end of the year and may move in with her parents when the time comes.
She says coming to the food distribution and sharing a meal together is one thing that provides some peace of mind.
“Gratitude. I mean, deep, deep gratitude. The fact that we gather for food and that we’ve been blessed with- I cannot tell you the number of times we sit down and we say, ‘These are pantry carrots. These are pantry potatoes. This is the pantry meat.’ And we just bless God every day because of what the pantry puts on our table and brings to our homes.