A TRIBUTE A TRIBUTE

n the first article I wrote for My Vegas magazine, I discussed my premise that perhaps knowing more personal stories about the 53 million Americans who are caring for loved ones, enabling them to stay in their homes, would encourage respect and recognition for all those who serve in this role. Varied institutions have repeatedly estimated that about 40% of Informal Caregivers are spouses of the persons needing their care. My book reviews several different spousal journeys to becoming an Informal Caregiver.

body. The stroke also left him with difficulty expressing himself. Maggie has been his caregiver, his sister, and perhaps most importantly, his advocate.

The caregiver role was not new to Maggie. She recalls life as a pre-teen after her father left. She realized even then her mother needed emotional support. Eventually, her father returned home. She was able to leave, and experience life as an adult. She married twice, both marriages failed. She traveled for a job she loved, writing for a newspaper.

Shelby and her husband married young, and he joined the military soon after their marriage. He was diagnosed with cancer while he was still in his twenties and required varied degrees of care from that time forward. Shelby adjusted their professions and lifestyles for many years, basing them on what he could do, until his health issues caught up with them and he needed her fulltime care. She saw this coming when she was still young but made the decision that she was in her marriage for the long haul! She voiced no self-pity, virtue signaling or judgement of others who might make a different decision, faced with similar challenges that she faced over the years.

Lorraine and her husband were happily married for 30 years when she received a call one afternoon, telling her he was in an emergency room after apparently suffering a stroke. She could not believe it as she had seen him perfectly well, going off to work that morning. She rushed to his side, where she stayed through long periods in rehabilitation, several health setbacks, and then adjusted to meet his needs in their home. She believes he will always be the most important thing in her life, and he seems to understand, as he tells her every day that he loves her.

IIn a 2020 press release, the AARP announced our country had 53 million informal caregivers and estimated the value of the care they provide exceeded 400 billion dollars annually. Both of these astounding numbers have grown substantially, since AARP began monitoring the number of informal caregivers in our country. An informal caregiver is usually an unpaid individual who is providing the care and support a loved one needs to remain in their own home. Their duties can require several hours a week, to 24 hours a day. These caregivers go largely unnoticed, but they make up a growing army of unsung heroes in healthcare. A portion of that army resides in Las Vegas and its surrounding communities. Stories of Silent Sacrifice offers a glimpse into the lives of ten of them, as this writer attempts to personalize their role. Perhaps seeing these informal caregivers in a personal light, our population and our health care providers will become more aware of their contributions to healthcare. What might we do to help them? Caregivers in this book care for persons that require fulltime care. I plan to use my assigned page in this and upcoming editions of MyVegas, to highlight several of these

Maggie was living in Arizona when her brother moved back to their parents’ home. One day, his estranged wife asked Maggie to go to that house and find him. Maggie found him on the floor of his room. She could see he had experienced a stroke. When he recovered, to the degree he would recover, he asked if he could live with her. She recalled a time in her early teens when she needed love and support, and he was the only one there. She agreed.

Lani and Emily watched their highly successful husbands retire, only to have the slow steady onset of chronic illnesses interfere in their retirement plans. Eventually these wives realized that things would never be as they planned, but they would do all they could to keep their husbands at home, with them. I asked Lani if she would continue to care for her husband when he did not know who she was; she told me she would always be there to care for him, as she would know who he is.

Ana is an encouragement to all those who have survived abusive marriages. After three failed marriages, she found the love of her life. She never gave up hoping that one day she would find the one who would make her happy. However, after just a few wonderful years together, her husband’s health began to fail. She stays with him, telling me she knows this is what he would do for her.

Most informal caregivers are family members of the person whose care they are providing. This is true of Maggie, who is the fulltime caregiver for her older brother who has survived a stroke. This stroke left him unable to move one side of his

Maggie tells her life story interjecting many humorous events, along with all the emotional trauma she has been through. She believes she was always meant to be a caregiver, but urges those who are considering this role, to know that the most important thing is to love the person they are caring for. This sentiment is echoed by all the caregivers featured in the book, Stories of Silent Sacrifice. – Dr. Rosemary Henrich, DNP

These beautiful love stories and more, are at the heart of the Informal Caregiver role being played out in our city, and our country, every day.

success MEAN TO YOU?

o you remember that magical feeling when you were a little kid that you just knew you were going to be successful? Then, as you grow up, you realize what you thought would be success isn’t all sunshine and rainbows?

Meet Amber Fuhriman, an immigration and criminal defense attorney in Las Vegas and the founder of Success Development

Like most of us, she had BIG dreams as a kid. As a first generational college student from a small town in Idaho, she was no stranger to grief and loss at a young age. After the sudden loss of her father when she was 17, Amber overcame significant personal challenges to build a career as a successful attorney.

Despite all her professional success, Amber hit the wall that many career professionals know all too well. Her inner child, who wanted nothing more than to be successful, felt like such a failure. Where was the fulfillment and happiness the money and achievements were supposed to bring? When did all the hard work pay off? When did the pain, grief, and heartache she had been trying to outrun go away? How could someone with such success on the outside, feel so empty

To answer these questions, Amber stared to learn more about how our minds work. She dug into the science behind the impact of our experiences and generational beliefs to our view of the world and our perception of our success within it. Most importantly, she started to find herself again. Amber the person - not just the lawyer.

Amber realized that her own anxieties and fears were created from not defining HER idea of success. If a person doesn’t know what success means to them, how could they possibly achieve it? Without a clear individual definition of success, a person’s accomplishments lead a life of ambiguous short term goal setting instead of the life of impact and legacy most of us strive to achieve.

Over the past five years, Amber has become a certified trainer of NeuroLinguistic Programming (NLP) and gained accolades in the business world, not just the legal world. She was featured on the cover of SHIFT Advanced Life Design Magazine, spoken on national stages in both the legal world and the business one, and has run several highly rated events in Las Vegas.

Amber founded Success Development Solutions in 2019 to help business owners, entrepreneurs and service-based professionals find the success their careers have failed to bring. Through individual and group coaching, mastermind and live events, speaking, and NLP Training, she helps her clients find a work-life harmony and build a professional life that supports their personal one.

You can learn more about Amber, her coaching opportunities, listen to her podcast or simply connect with another Las Vegas local business owner at www.SuccessDevelopmentSolutions.com.