It usually doesn't start with a phone call from a hospital. It starts with a feeling, something you can't quite articulate after hanging up with your parent or driving home from a visit to the Fulton, MD, area. Maybe their voice sounded flat. Maybe the house smelled different. Maybe you noticed a new dent on the car and got an explanation that didn't quite add up.
You keep a running tally in your head. The bruise your parent brushed off as "nothing." The way they repeated the same story three times during Sunday dinner. The pantry that used to be neatly stocked, now half-empty with a few expired cans pushed to the back. No single item on the list feels alarming enough to act on, but together, they keep you awake at night.
Let's talk about what wellness isn't. It isn't a treadmill in a back room. It isn't a weekly bingo game listed under "enrichment." And it isn't a vague promise on a brochure that your loved one will "live their best life."