LOWER MERION \u2013 Every morning, Cyani Terry of Upper Darby leaves home for the one place where she can finally catch her breath.<\/p>\n
It isn\u2019t home. It\u2019s work.<\/p>\n
At Bryn Mawr Village in Bryn Mawr, Terry spends her days caring for residents recovering from illness and injury. Before and after every shift, she\u2019s helping her 48-year-old mother through colon cancertreatment and raising two young children, including a one-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still have to show up for my children. I have to show up for my mother. And I still have to showup for my residents,\u201d Terry said.<\/p>\n
July is Sandwich Generation Month, recognizing the millions of Americans balancing thedemands of raising children while caring for aging parents. Nearly one in four U.S. adults arepart of the sandwich generation, according to the Pew Research Center, as Americans livelonger and many start families later in life. Terry became part of that generation much soonerthan she ever expected.<\/p>\n
Before her mother became sick, she was the one caring for Terry\u2019s daughter while Terry went towork. Then, almost overnight, everything changed.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy mom was the one who used to watch my daughter while I went to work. Then she got very,very sick,\u201d Terry recalled.<\/p>\n
Most stories about the sandwich generation are told through the lens of stress and burnout.<\/p>\n
Terry has experienced plenty of both. After finishing her shift, she\u2019s often helping her motherthrough chemotherapy, radiation and recovery before heading home to her own children. Lastmonth, her mother underwent a 13-hour surgery.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s not the story Terry wants to tell.<\/p>\n
For her, work isn\u2019t another burden. It\u2019s the place where she can finally breathe.<\/p>\n
\u201cI get a little bit of relief when I come to work. I get to breathe,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Her mother has always been the life of the party, someone who loves getting dressed up andgoing out. Terry doesn\u2019t want her to see how much the illness has affected her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want her to see me sad. I don\u2019t want her to see me affected by what\u2019s going on,\u201d Terry said.<\/p>\n
Instead, she channels those emotions into caring for her residents.<\/p>\n
\u201cI take care of everyone with love because I always think, if someone had to take care of mymother, I would want them to treat her with love,\u201d Terry said. <\/p>\n
For Terry, that philosophy comes down to one simple truth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese are people\u2019s mothers and grandmothers,\u201d Terry said.<\/p>\n
The support goes both ways.<\/p>\n
When her mother underwent surgery, Bryn Mawr Village\u2019s administrator prayed with herbeforehand.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen she prayed with me, that told me everything about the building I work for,\u201d Terry said.<\/p>\n
Her residents have become another source of strength. If they notice she\u2019s having a difficult day,they pray with her. Every morning, they ask the same question.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Good morning. How\u2019s your mom?\u2019 I think that\u2019s so sweet,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Working in rehabilitation has also connected her with families facing the same balancing act.One resident\u2019s daughter is raising young children while caring for her mother in her 80s. The twowomen remind each other of one thing every time they meet.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery time we see each other, we tell each other, \u2018Everything\u2019s going to be okay,\u2019\u201d Terry said.<\/p>\n
As a Certified Nursing Assistant, Terry helps residents with nearly every aspect of daily life, fromgetting dressed and eating to bathing, grooming and monitoring their health.<\/p>\n
She believes many healthcare workers quietly carry heavy personal responsibilities whilecontinuing to show up each day for the people who depend on them.<\/p>\n
Terry hopes her children will remember seeing their mother keep going, even when life becamedifficult.<\/p>\n
\u201cI show up every day and I try my best to make sure that my kids see that no matter how hardthings are, you have to keep going,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOWER MERION \u2013 Every morning, Cyani Terry of Upper Darby leaves home for the one place where she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[182,200,139,28,199,147,149,148,150],"class_list":["post-252890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upper-darby","tag-local-news","tag-montgomery-county","tag-news","tag-pennsylvania","tag-top-stories-mlt","tag-upper-darby","tag-upper-darby-headlines","tag-upper-darby-news","tag-upper-darby-township"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}