Diabetic Mother Leads to Personal Chef Caregiver Caregiver Stories

Caregiving Roles The Personal Chef

A fondness for cooking helps a daughter create appealing nutritious meals for her diabetic mother

Alyssa Schukar Making sure her mother Ruth eats right is one of Sheri Yarbrough's highest priorities. Sheri Yarbrough, 56, of Chicago, has a Ph.D. in education policy studies and now cares full time for her mother Ruth, 90, who has dementia, diabetes, high cholesterol and osteoporosis. Her mother is also a five-year breast cancer survivor. I always knew I would be the one to take care of our parents, but I thought I’d be able to see it coming a long way off. Instead, it arrived without warning. In 2010, I took my mother to a general doctor’s appointment and was informed that she could no longer live alone. So I and moved into hers. The first 18 months were rocky because she and I had our differences. Her breast cancer diagnosis challenged me to change the way I acted toward her and that helped our relationship get better. I handle the majority of daily activities for her — bathing her and making sure she’s , as well as cleaning our home and cooking. I realize I can’t do this all by myself so I have people who come to help me from time to time. "I have to watch the food she eats so her blood sugar doesn’t spike..." Alyssa Schukar Sheri prepares healthful meals for her mother to help manage her diabetes. Cooking and making sure she’s well fed is one of my biggest responsibilities. I enjoy cooking and think about food a lot. That’s a good thing because my mother eats five or six times per day. I love food and every day is like [the TV show] Chopped for me. I’m also a little bit of a control freak about cooking because I want to know what we’re eating, and I have to watch the food she eats so her blood sugar doesn’t spike too much. We usually have oatmeal for breakfast, then we stick with mostly proteins and vegetables after that. My mother was never a picky eater but recently she suddenly stopped eating meat at night — she’ll eat it only during the day. I learned from her doctor that one of her medications could make her at night. So I started making eggs or tofu in the evenings, and I use herbs and spices from around the world to keep her food appealing. Lately, I’ve been playing around with soups because my mother has always liked them. I have to keep her full enough because if she’s hungry she’ll get up during the night, and she needs to be well rested to have a good day. Alyssa Schukar Sheri takes care of most of mother's daily activities, including bathing and monitoring her medications. Seven years in, it feels good to have assumed this role in my mother’s life. I’m glad that I was in a place where I could make her last years as good as they can be and keep her happy. That brings me joy. — As told to Stacey Colino

Also of Interest

Need more personalized information

Answer three quick caregiving questions.

Looks like you ve started the questionnaire but didn t finish

Would you like to start over?

View your caregiving results

Featured AARP Member Benefits See more Shopping & Groceries offers > See more Family Caregiving offers > See more Family Caregiving offers > See more Groceries offers > Cancel You are leaving AARP.org and going to the website of our trusted provider. The provider’s terms, conditions and policies apply. Please return to AARP.org to learn more about other benefits. Your email address is now confirmed. You'll start receiving the latest news, benefits, events, and programs related to AARP's mission to empower people to choose how they live as they age. You can also by updating your account at anytime. You will be asked to register or log in. Cancel Offer Details Disclosures

Close In the next 24 hours, you will receive an email to confirm your subscription to receive emails related to AARP volunteering. Once you confirm that subscription, you will regularly receive communications related to AARP volunteering. In the meantime, please feel free to search for ways to make a difference in your community at Javascript must be enabled to use this site. Please enable Javascript in your browser and try again.