
CAREGIVER – PERMISSION TO SHARE YOUR STORY
For years I never considered that the label “Caregiver“ belonged to me. It seemed too formal, too restrictive, and too important for what I did to help my chronically ill mum.
Hugs and housework and understanding.
Surely those didn’t deserve such a label?
Yet when my younger sister was diagnosed with a brain tumor and I spent every other day at the hospital, I cared for her in many physical ways from feeding to advocating for her with the pain team. Yet I still didn’t feel this label belonged to me.
WATCHER – CAREGIVER – A LABEL TO HELP
But I also felt I needed the help that a label brings. Without a label I did not have the words to share my story.
So I created a word. I called myself a Watcher and then I began to wonder if there were other Watchers out there.
Do you know someone who is struggling with a physical or mental illness? Have you ever stood by someone and felt utterly helpless? Do they have problems that you cannot take away, and health concerns you cannot fix?
WATCHER AND CAREGIVER
If so, you are a Watcher. And you are most likely also a Caregiver.
You wince as your loved one winces, and cry as they cry. You rejoice as they rejoice, but you cannot even walk a mile in their shoes.
We are the healthy ones. We have the world at our fingertips and often share none of their bodily restraints. Our burden is different. We walk beside them and try to communicate their ups and their downs to the people around us. Often we fail, because sometimes there are simply no words.
WATCHER – CARGIVER – YOU NEED GOD AND COMMUNITY
It is hard being a Watcher, my friends. It is lonely, because every illness is different. No situation is the same. All of us are Watchers, but all Watch alone.
This is why I started writing. There are two answers to such aloneness. One is community, the other is God.
We all long for someone to stand by our side and grasp our forearm and say with a knowing, quiet voice and full eyes, “I get it. I understand.”
WATCHING – A JOURNEY AND A QUEST
Watching is a journey which goes on and on – and so encouragement is needed for the everyday. It is also a path which begins and ends, and so we need help for those times too.
Watching is also a quest which will at some point encounter God.
Of course, I don’t claim to have all the answers, but I am seeking them, by striving to live in the shadow of the Almighty.
“I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE.”
I have no ‘five point plan’ for healing or even for peace, but my prayer is that my words will help you ponder your life as they have helped me ponder mine – and that your experience will be the richer for it.
And I pray they will provide a feeble sense of community and a less feeble sense of God. Like C. S. Lewis wrote in Surprised by Joy, I have only, “… been emboldened to write of it because I notice that a man seldom mentions what he had supposed to be his most idiosyncratic sensations without receiving from at least one (often more) of those present the reply, ‘What! Have you felt that too? I thought I was the only one.’”
*First published at calledtowatch.com. **Republished with permission.

More Posts by Emily
Long-Distance Watching • Different but Possible (Part 1)
Long-distance watching changes the paradigm — we cannot physically help our loved one anymore. Yet we can still be a blessing.
Seek Peace and Why You Need to Seek Something More
So how do we live through disaster well? We take our terrifying anxieties and our aching sorrows in both hands and we look heavenward. We choose to let despair draw us to Jesus, rather than away.


Emily J. Maurits
Chronic Joy® Contributing Writer
After working for several years in the public health sector, Emily is now studying theology. She believes we are all called to love suffering people, because that's what Jesus did. She is passionate about equipping and encouraging others to do just that, and founded www.calledtowatch.com for the family and friends of those with chronic illnesses. As well as uncovering God's presence in the chaos of life, she enjoys reading, running, and writing, with her memoir coming out next year.

NEXT STEPS
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ABIDE SERIES
REJUVENATE, REVTALIZE, REKINDLE AND RECONNECT
This insightful and enriching 10-chapter study, designed just for couples, offers you and your spouse a safe place to grieve, heal, grow, and begin to dream together again – to thrive as one – in sickness and in health.
Caregiving
Caregivers walk their own unique path through chronic illness. A caregivers role can be both rewarding and exhausting, difficult and joy-filled, meaningful and frustrating, isolating and inspiring. Wherever you are on the journey, we’re so glad you’re here! Step into hope, find purpose, embrace worth, and encounter God’s joy.
I found your blog via the blog Blind Injustice and I was excited to hear there was a wonderful blog through the eyes of the watcher! It is a lonely road and I admire you for your commitment to your mum and your sister and the way you cling to God. You are clearly in his hands. My husband had chronic illness for the first 4 years of our marriage, then we went straight into 5 kids in 9 years. I feel like I have been a watcher for all that time. I liked your article about how I stay sane when there is so much I want to do. That is how I have felt and how I have dealt with the same issues. Thank you for sharing. God bless your hands, your words and your work. May he give you the desires of your heart as you trust him.