Let’s Look at Caring for Carole
This story, Caring for Carole, benefited quite a bit from me setting it aside for a good three and a half years. I started this story during the third quarter of 2021. But I did not finish it until 2025. The prompt word was village.
Background
When I first started this story, my mother-in-law had passed away fairly recently (my father-in-law was already gone some seven years by that time). My mother was still alive.
My dad was okay. In addition, my folks were still living relatively independently in Huntington Station, New York. I believe they may have still been driving, but not for terribly long distances.
But by the time I wrote this story, my mother had been deceased for two years. My father lived in essentially assisted living/memory care.
And so, Caring for Carole ended up becoming pretty personal to me. But having the huge break led to a radical change in my perspective. And I feel that change truly helps with the plot and its execution.
And yes, I am well aware that some of the bigger characters are A, B, C, and D. That much is by design.
Plot of Caring for Carole
While his father spends time in a rehab facility to recover from the effects of two strokes, and his mother slips further into dementia, Dean Ellis prices care facilities while his marriage falls apart and he sees enormous, insurmountable bills in his future.
At the same time, the nearby Lenape Square Theatre is trying to keep from going under. Dean’s mother Carole had been a dancer. Could Dean put these two issues together and help make something greater than the sum of its parts?
Characters
The characters are Carole Ellis, her son Dean, her husband Abe, Olivia Metzger, Frank Hernandez, Joey Hernandez (and his wife or girlfriend, although I don’t name her), Macy (the home health aide), Zoning Board chair Erika Baily, Tawanda Leland and her son Danny.
There are also four named partners at the law firm where Dean works as a paralegal.
Memorable Quotes from Caring for Carole
It takes a village to care for a person with dementia.
Carole had been a housewife and a dancer. She had always said, if she hadn’t met Abe, she would have become a Rockette.
Dean had no idea if any of what his mother had said was true. Was it idle braggadocio? Or was it an underlying, below the surface resentment at having been relegated to a provincial life just outside of Wilmington, Delaware, in a town called Claymont?
Or was it even a resentment of his own birth? Dean tried to think about other things, anything other than that, for his mother was locked in an ever-shrinking world.
With his father in rehab after his second stroke, Dean was on his own. Beth had checked out of every aspect of their marriage already. This was no different.
So, it was just Dean. And, maybe, a community if he could find one.
Rating
The story has a K+ rating, as there is some foul language. But the real issue, which is unfortunately nonfiction, is that elderly folks in America have so few choices.
Takeaways for Caring for Carole
I kinda like how it comes together at time end, a bit like a show. At the same time, though, it’s a bit too on the nose, and feels a little like Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney in those old Andy Hardy pictures, where they solve their problems by putting on a show.
Then again, that does fit in with Carole’s past. You make the call, Broadway show fans.
Want More of my Short Stories and Novellas?
If this story resonates with you, then check out some of my other blog posts about my shorter works.
Short Stories
Finally, for a complete list of my shorter works, please be sure to check out the Hub Page—Short Stories.
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