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