Stay At Home Personal Care Blog Dear Charles: The Caregiver Neighbor

Dear Charles:I am a widow living in southeast Virginia. My next door neighbor is an elderly woman who also lives alone. We've been on friendly terms for over 25 years now. The problem is that she has numerous health conditions that keep her mostly homebound. Her daughter lives about 25 miles away from us. Over the past five years I've slowly become her caregiver. I take her to doctor's appointments, help cook for her and even do her laundry. It has reached the point where she and her daughter just expect me to help. It has just gotten to be too much. I've tried to insinuate to her daughter that she needs to help her mother more. She doesn't work and it really only takes her about 30 minutes to drive here, but she doesn't take the hint. I don't want to lose a friend but I'm getting completely stressed out from all of this. What can I do?Alice