Taking Care of Jip

Two young women each work twelve hours, six days a week. They’re clever and cheerful. Both seem to have the Thai ability to keep a spirit of fun in their days with us (in Thai the words for “work” and “party” are close). Jip likes them and vice versa.

Neither seems to mind Jip’s routines, which these days can be slow and a little strange. (Swishing her mouth for an hour before breakfast?) If there’s a spare moment, they fill it with puttering around, rearranging the piles that I seem to leave behind everywhere.

We found them through an agency that one of Jip’s friends had used for her father a few years ago. Ya is quiet in a way that fits the night shift, and has done this kind of work for ten years. Jieb is younger and gigglier, with the cell phone generation’s energy.

So we’re covered ‘round the clock, which means I can go to bed when I feel like it, and then wake up the next morning without an alarm. What a gift to have somebody else give Jip her 2am medicine! Sunday is the caregivers’ day off, just so I don’t forget how to do it.