Guilt takes a holiday

To-day, the annual review of my mother's stay at a long term care facility ( Trilogy LTC ) occurred. This one was # 8, the first being 2005.
Her health is good , considering a ) she is 87 and b) she has dementia. In the yin and yang of life and the way we view it - the staff is siding on the positive,  still a polite, in control and pleasant resident.  The " me " side is OMG she is getting old, rambles way more and is frail.
Kindly, the staff esp Dr. Housestaff remind me that the path is downhill with no going back but how you run that path is everything. And yes, " No, I didn't make a mistake by putting her in TLC ".  Mother is warm and dry and safe.

In the first year, I attended one of the family council meetings out of curiosity. The thought that I'd put forward was that the common viewpoint  " we are all in the same boat " wasn't going to help anyone. I felt that a caregiver approaching this group of family council people would see people in the boat throwing a lifeline to the struggling victims " care givers of the TLC residents ".  I said that the proper analogy was " we are all treading water here (  care givers of dementia patients ) could we help in any way. "
to-day the social consultant called it " dancing " as in all the staff and care givers were dancing hoping not to get too far out of step in dealing with the unknown reality of the patient.
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The upshot was that I feel less guilty to-day. To-morrow , well thats to-morrow. Now, realize that it is in their best interest for me to hear that I did the right thing b/c Mom is there, I'm paying and paying them. However, truth be told the alternative is close to unthinkable i.e. mom having lived with us for 8 years. We couldn't take ten days,  back in 2004.   Aha, been there done that !