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If it's not too much trouble

The challenge of the ageing parent

Please look after Dad

IF IT’S NOT TOO MUCH TROUBLE
The challenge of the ageing parent
By Ann Benton
Christian Focus. 116 pages. £5.99
ISBN 978-1-84550-302-4

Here is an excellent primer for those who may have to care for an elderly parent.

From her own experience of providing a secure and loving environment for her father-in-law in the last 18 months before he died, Ann Benton furnishes us with down-to-earth, biblically-rooted, practical advice. The book is raw and realistic — no platitudes here, no greasy and slick answers, just a reminder of a job to be done and how to do it well, and the personal struggles and cost involved.

But, just as important, there is a clear insight into how the frail elderly feel and how best they can find meaningful purpose in old age.

My advice is: read it before you need to; I wish teenagers could be persuaded to read it and so gain deeper respect for the ‘old boy’ next door, or ‘granddad who is a bit stupid now’.

The publishers might have dignified the book with a more attractive cover and not economised with the cheapest possible paper. But I don’t blame the authoress for that, and it is the only blemish in an excellent and highly-to-be-recommended book on a subject growing in interest and importance today.

Brian H. Edwards,
former pastor and president of FIEC