A Portrait of Caregiving: Devoted Daughter and Her Mother (Video)

As an occupational therapist, Maria Martinez spends her days working with clients of all ages, including older adults dealing
​with ​dementia.

But when Martinez's workday is over, she heads to her parents' apartment in San Rafael to continue many of th​e​ same tasks
​she does all day​. Only, at night, she's caring for her own mother, Aurora, who is one of the 5.3 million Americans living with Alzheimer's disease.

When Martinez started noticing signs of Alzheimer’s in her mom a few years ago, her father told her she was being overly cautious because of her work as an occupational therapist.

While it took Martinez’s father longer to accept the diagnosis, he was certain about one thing. The thought of sending his wife to a nursing home weighed heavily on him, he says, and he decided he wasn’t going to hand his wife over “like an object.”

So Martinez, an only child, and her father share the caregiving for her mother. “I never thought in my mind that I would be dealing with my own issues of family caregiving,” Martinez says.

Aurora goes to an adult day center five days a week, which Martinez says is indispensable to her mother’s well-being. After Aurora comes home from the center in the evening, Martinez often spends a couple of hours bathing her mother, making sure her medications are in order and keeping up with other caregiving tasks.

Despite the tough times — like when Aurora thinks Martinez is her niece, not her daughter — there are good times, Martinez says. “Once in a while, I’ll get that spark and spunkiness. And that’s when I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s my mom.’”

This story is part of KQED’s ongoing health series Vital Signs.