Josip Markus

As per usual on Sunday, Josip Markus, is truly someone we can all admire and look up to.

From Epoch Bright:

In 2006, Josip Markus, the only son of his father, Alojz Markus, was in graduate school when he received a phone call from his dad in tears. Alojz had fallen at work when the left side of his body gave out. Josip rushed home and accompanied his father to numerous doctor’s visits over several months before they received the diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease.

Alojz was placed on a medication regimen that helped stabilize his symptoms. He was independent, even driving himself, for several years after that. During this time, Josip visited his father whenever he could.

However, in 2019, Josip—a globetrotting conscious living and leadership coach—realized that his father suddenly had difficulty being by himself. During their conversations, Alojz told his son that he never wanted to be put away in a nursing home. … the father said, ‘I would rather go to a funeral home than a nursing home.’”

When his father, who has advanced Parkinson’s disease, lost the ability to live by himself, Josip, a California man returned to his childhood home in Ohio, pledging to take care of his father until the end.

Josip Markus, 48, told The Epoch Times: “It was clear that he needed my support.”

Following a retreat early that year, Josip felt an intuitive calling to return to Willowick, Ohio, to be with his father, who’s now 78. He sold his California home and most of his possessions and braced himself for a new way of life.

“He was my rock my whole life,” Josip said. “Our roles were just beginning to reverse for the first time. He’s slowly declining, and I gradually have to do more and more to support him.”

Josip’s role as his father’s caregiver intensified in February 2022, when Alojz fell in his bedroom and broke his right humerus.  He had surgery a couple of weeks later and was fitted with a metal plate and 12 screws to hold the bone together. Without his independence, while his arm healed, the 78-year-old grew yet frailer.

“He was 100 percent dependent on me for everything,” Josip said. “Every time he needed something, I came right away. That really, I believe, showed him that I would do anything for him. We saw how deep and strong the love and the bond between us is.”

Could I do what Josip has done? … Could you?

10/9/22