Caregivers - Episode One: Madeleine and Rose

Caregivers - Episode One: Madeleine and Rose

| 49 min
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Meet Madeleine Fergus. Like all of the heroes in the Caregivers series, she is an ordinary person with extraordinary heart. For the last five years, Madeleine's life has been consumed by caring for her partially paralyzed mother, Rose. Madeleine took early retirement in order to care for Rose full-time. It's a job with long hours and little recognition. Yet despite the hardship and frustration, she finds caring for her mother naturally rewarding. When we first meet Rose in April, she is full of mischief. Although she is confined to a wheelchair, she likes to sing, go out, and get her hair done. By December, Rose is still able to help Madeleine decorate the Christmas tree. However, after battling a series of infections over the next six months, Rose deteriorates into total dependency. Madeleine, who makes do on two small pensions, must now seek more help from a system which can be difficult to access. Produced with the help of individual caregivers and community agencies, this is a "how-to" series with soul. Shot over the course of a year, these five episodes immerse you in the joys and sorrows of providing care. The caregivers featured in the series are honest and open about their feelings--and their eloquent insights offer an assessment of our health-care system's strengths and weaknesses. To Madeleine, Rose is not only her mother but her best friend. When Rose dies, Madeleine's heart is broken but her spirit isn't. She knows she has no choice but to go on. As she says, "You've got to float with the tide."

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Caregivers - Episode One: Madeleine and Rose, Dan Curtis, provided by the National Film Board of Canada

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Credits
  • director
    Dan Curtis
  • camera
    Dan Curtis
  • sound
    Dan Curtis
  • producer
    Adam Symansky
  • executive producer
    Don Haig
  • writer
    Jim Osborne
  • editing
    Ed Balevicius
  • sound editing
    Alison Clark
    Elma Bello
  • sound mix
    Dino Pigat
  • music
    Ken Myhr

  • Jack Horwitz

    The series was accompanied by “Caregivers: A Handbook for Family Caregivers” by Shelley Happy, London InterCommunity Health Centre, 1997 now removed of references to the series in its 2008/9 editions.

    Jack Horwitz, 14 Feb 2021

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