“Enough Already!”: Caregiving and Disaster Preparedness—Two Faces of Anticipatory Loss

ABSTRACT

This article presents a narrative account of living with repeated threats of hurricane destruction within the context of past and present caregiving responsibilities. The narrative is based on the author's experience of providing care to a daughter with cerebral palsy and to several elderly family members. Excerpts from a diary of informal conversations with friends, neighbors, and other community members during Florida's unprecedented hurricane season in 2004 are used as additional sources. The narrative highlights similarities, differences, and interactions among costs and benefits associated with various categories of anticipatory and realized loss and trauma.

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Sara E. Green

Sara E. Green received her PhD from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1994. She is currently an associate professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of South Florida in Tampa. Her teaching and research interests center on the social experiences of disability across the life course and intergenerational caregiving.