I'm still here....

....even though I haven't posted for a while. I hope everyone has had a good Christmas/Holiday season. I haven't done any crafting but I do need to get started as I have 3 family birthdays and a commissioned one in the next month. My Christmas was a quiet relaxing one....but my mind has been thrown into turmoil. The reason?....well I'll tell you. I come from a family of 5 kids and we were all split up and went into foster care at an early age.....I have no problem with that... (even though there are still a lot of unresolved issues for me)...and we all kept in touch over the years. My older sister lives not too far away from me and I was a little surprised when their Christmas card came by post..it's usually hand delivered. I haven't seen her for a while so when I took my card for them I got a real shock. My sister has had a lot of health problems..mainly inherited ones. Rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis. When I saw her I nearly didn't recognise the little old lady hunched up and confined to a chair unable to stand without help. I transpires that after 2 operations on both knees, 2 hip replacements and the replacements of cataracts in both eyes she is totally housebound. One of her hip replacements had to be removed and replaced by a temporary rod until they can operate again in February at the earliest. She twisted and broke her elbow while trying to use a walking frame the hospital had provided her. To top it all her husband has sustained a back injury and is unable to work at the moment or carry my sister. My sister does have a stair lift but due to her present difficulties cannot get to it, so has to sleep on the sofa and cannot get to the upstairs bathroom. He considered giving up work to become her full time carer...but with a mortgage they just can't afford to do this. His work often takes him abroad..and so would need a carer for those times. At the cost of £8 an hour and £50 for a night carer the cost again is not feasible. So what do they do? I just feel so helpless that I can't do anything to help....and I admit I am downright terrified.....this could be me in 5 years time. At 56 she is only 16 months older than me....that vision is not a pretty one...