I was livid, it was now 1:00 in afternoon and I was just being informed that my mother, unable to get out of bed without assistance, was alone.

This was not first time this home care company had failed to fulfill their promises or to follow my directions and what made it worse, it wasn’t first agency that I had hired.

I live in Glendale Arizona, and mother lived in Cleveland Ohio. Mother was adamant that she continue living in home she and dad shared, same home my siblings and I were raised. As eldest daughter and only one without a husband and children, responsibility of coordinating care fell on my shoulders.

The amount of stress I endured during last five years of mother’s life is indescribable. I continued to hire ‘wrong’ home care service, I continued to enlist services of handyman and lawn care services that fell quite short of their promises and I even subjected mother to an unscrupulous so-called financial planner.

I did all right things. I checked references, held lengthy interviews, wrote out my instructions to letter so that there was no confusion, I checked Better Business Bureau and even went so far as to request letters of recommendations of clients from these elder care providers.

Mom passed away while I was home for Christmas in 2000. She died at home, something she truly wanted when her time had come. Now, five years later, I have met most wonderful woman and my first question to her was, “Where were you when I needed you?”

I hope that I won’t need services offered by Senior Approved Services any time soon, but if you are designated family caregiver or perhaps senior in need, you must know about this ingenious concept of a service.

Senior Approved Services was founded by Barbara Mascio who wanted a method to actively advocate for right of all seniors to receive excellent care and to most importantly remain safe in receiving of that care. Seniors and family caregivers access this invaluable service at no charge.

Document Sharing

Three years of editorial experience in college taught me many things about document sharing. My editing experience was far from limited due either to my interest in a variety of subjects or to my indecisiveness during those college years-I’m not sure which. Not only did I edit for three different undergraduate journals, but also I had gall to become editor-in-chief of pre-law and honors journals and to start an undergraduate health journal. No matter how different subjects may have been, same technical and document sharing challenges inevitably surfaced at similar stages in editorial process.

Since college, I have noticed that editorial process and document sharing have filled large roles in my professional pursuits as well. I have therefore concluded two things: document sharing will always be a part of education, business, and virtually any other organization; and lessons I have learned during and since my college editorial experience may be helpful to other professionals.

Document Sharing Cookie Jar

Picture in your mind a cookie jar. Do you remember how many hands reach into a cookie jar? With each hand that enters cookie jar, contents change. When one hand removes cookies, there are fewer cookies. When another hand refills cookie jar, there are more cookies. When yet another hand digs around in cookie jar to find perfect cookie, there are generally a lot of broken and crumbled cookies left behind.

Document sharing is all too similar to cookie jar. A group or committee may work on a budget, a report, a survey, a research paper, a proposal, and maybe even a memo. The document is cookie jar, and its elements are cookies.

In any committee, staff, or board, there are always “removers,” “replacers,” and “diggers,” and contents of final document often look very different from document with which you began.