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TIME ENOUGH AT LAST

July 30, 2025

TIME ENOUGH AT LAST

As a Caregiver, I never seem to have enough time.

Not enough time for the sleep needed to be considered restful.

Not enough time to do anything uninterrupted like watch a movie, talk on the phone or just sit and think.

There never seems to be time enough to complete all the daily tasks with just a little time left for myself.

The extra things that I’d like to do for my Mother like organize her books or make her closet more accessible don’t get done because there isn’t any extra time.

In between the doctor’s appointment days, there isn’t the time to stop thinking about the last before you must begin thinking of the next.

There isn’t enough time to coordinate the administrative Caregiver duties like handle the finances, the mail, the forms, and the extraordinary amount of paper associated with her life to deal with my own emails.

2-hours is not enough time to enjoy being away from Caregiving, yet 3-hours is too much time and begins the worry hour.

24-hours alone is a giant step forward. If you enter the 24-hour period with the correct attitude, it is just enough time to remember what life was like but not enough time to sink into depression over that life.

There truly is not enough time to seek, to search to find any helpful solutions to the challenges of Caregiving.

Time enough for creating, writing, observing, thinking, is unlimited. And the only thing unlimited about Caregiving—is the list of the Caregiver’s responsibilities.

By the same token, there doesn’t seem to be enough time to make positive memories. I’m thinking that these memories will become a tad more positive with time.

Time is precious.

Time is fleeting.

Time is short.

I wish that there was time enough at last.

There isn’t time enough for me to fully comprehend how this Caregiving journey has changed me. That’s probably a good thing.

I am reminded of an Episode of the Twilight Zone, “Time Enough at Last” 1959 S1Ep8. Burgess Meredith plays the role of Henry Bemis, a middle-aged man who loves to read. Unfortunately, as he goes through his daily activities, he finds it extremely difficult to find time to read. After a nuclear explosion, Burgess finds himself the sole survivor. As the head teller in a bank, he had gone into the bank vault in order to read during his lunch hour thus saving his life.

Upon exiting the rubble of the bank, he wandered around and found himself at a library. His joy at seeing all the books erased all thoughts of what was to become of himself. He envisioned reading books and more books for the remainder of his days. The viewer is happy for him, as he looks at the camera smiling and says the line, “Time enough at last…”

At that very moment his glasses fall off his face down onto the ground. As he stumbled to find them, he steps on the glasses smashing them into pieces.

The irony of each Twilight Zone Episode is that they often, if not always provide a twisted glimpse into real life—even today.

And so, I wonder, what does life look like when the Caregiver has time enough at last?