Narratives of Care

After Hurricane Irma damaged her mother's house in Puerto Rico, Maria had to arrange repairs, restore electricity and water, replace furniture, and keep track of every expense. All while caring for her mother, Margarita, who wanted only one thing: to go home.

How much work does it take to get someone home and what happens when going home is no longer possible?

In this episode of Narratives of Care: Puerto Rico, host Charlotte Bayala continues the story of Margarita Bermudez Ortega, an independent woman whose family was beginning to recognize changes associated with dementia.

Her daughter Maria describes the enormous amount of work involved in rebuilding Margarita's home after Hurricane Irma. There were contractors to find, bills to pay, paperwork to complete, and two binders filled with records. It was caregiving work that extended far beyond helping her mother with everyday needs.

Eventually, Margarita returned to her own house. But less than two weeks after Irma, Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico, damaging her home again.

This time, her family faced a different decision.

Through the voices of Maria and Iris, this episode explores the often invisible responsibilities of family caregivers, the importance of independence, and what happens when keeping someone safe begins to mean taking them away from the place they most want to be.

• The physical and financial work of rebuilding Margarita's home after Hurricane Irma
• How Maria became responsible for paperwork, expenses, repairs, and caregiving coordination
• The invisible administrative work that often falls to family caregivers
• Margarita's determination to return to her own home
• How Hurricane Maria changed what her family believed was possible
• The difficult decision to bring Margarita into another family member's home

Margarita Bermudez Ortega — The woman at the center of this family's story.

Maria Santos Bermudez — Margarita's daughter, who coordinated repairs, expenses, and many responsibilities surrounding her mother's care.

Iris Bayala — Margarita's daughter, who describes the family's changing decisions about where her mother could live.

Julio Bayala — Iris's husband, whose concern about Margarita living alone helped move the family toward a new caregiving arrangement. His role is described in this episode by Iris.

Charlotte Bayala — Creator, host, and narrator of Narratives of Care.

In September 2017, Puerto Rico experienced two major hurricanes: Irma, followed less than two weeks later by Maria.

For Margarita's family, those storms were not only natural disasters. They created additional caregiving responsibilities at a time when the family was already concerned about changes in Margarita's memory and behavior.

The work of restoring her home involved repairs, utilities, contractors, finances, and extensive recordkeeping. These responsibilities illustrate an often-overlooked part of caregiving: the administrative and logistical work required to make everyday life possible for someone who needs help.

The storms also forced the family to confront a difficult question. When a loved one wants to remain independent, how do you decide when living alone is no longer safe?

Narratives of Care: Puerto Rico is a 12-part narrative podcast series created by Charlotte Bayala.

Through oral histories with families navigating dementia, Alzheimer's disease, and cancer, the series explores what caregiving asks of families—and how the place where care happens shapes what becomes possible.

These are individual stories, not a definition of caregiving in Puerto Rico.

Listen to Narratives of Care on your favorite podcast platform, and follow the series for a new episode every Tuesday.

Website: https://charlottebayala.com/narratives-of-care

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/narratives-of-care/id6808407626

Know someone who has spent hours making phone calls, handling paperwork, managing expenses, or arranging care for a loved one?

Share this episode with them.

Not all caregiving happens at someone's bedside. Sometimes it happens in the work required to make a home, and a life, possible.

Created, hosted, and produced by: Charlotte Bayala

Music and sound effects: Envato

Audio production and editing: Hindenburg Pro

Margarita Bermudez Ortega was fiercely independent. Well into her later years, she was still living alone in Puerto Rico, mowing her own lawn and deciding for herself what she could and could not do.

Then little things began happening that were harder for her family to explain.

In the first episode of Narratives of Care: Puerto Rico, Margarita’s daughters, Maria and Iris, and her son-in-law Julio look back at the period before anyone would have called what they were doing caregiving. When forgetting, accusations, arguments and increased checking-in slowly began changing the family’s relationship with Margarita.

As her family started organizing around her, Margarita’s home remained an important part of her independence. Then Hurricanes Irma and Maria brought another kind of disruption, forcing the family to confront a question that would follow them into the next stage of her care: What does it mean to get someone home when both the place they call home and their ability to live there are changing?

In this episode

* Margarita before care became part of the family’s everyday life

* The early changes her daughters struggled to understand

* How checking in, taking turns and stepping in gradually became caregiving

* The family network beginning to form around Margarita

* How Hurricanes Irma and Maria changed the decisions surrounding her home and independence

Featured voices (In order of appearance)

Iris Bayala — Margarita’s daughter

Maria Santos Bermudez — Margarita’s daughter

Julio Bayala — Iris’s husband and Margarita’s son-in-law

About this series

Narratives of Care: Puerto Rico is a narrative podcast series about what caregiving asks of families, what feels familiar wherever we live, and what changes because of the place where care happens.

Through the experiences of families caring for people with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and cancer, the series looks closely at the relationships, homes, healthcare systems, communities, and circumstances surrounding care in Puerto Rico.

The series is reported, written, and presented by Charlotte Bayala.

Links & resources

Narratives of Care

charlottebayala.com/narratives-of-care

Credits

Reported, written, and presented by Charlotte Bayala

Editing and production by Charlotte Bayala

Music and additional audio: Envato

Follow the series

Follow Narratives of Care in your podcast app to receive each new episode of Narratives of Care: Puerto Rico

Learn more about the series at charlottebayala.com/narratives-of-care.

Narratives of Care: Puerto Rico is part of Narratives of Care, created and presented by Charlotte Bayala.

Is caregiving the same everywhere?

When someone you love needs care, how much does where you live change what happens next?

Narratives of Care is a narrative podcast about caregiving, told by the people who have lived it. Each season explores how place, culture, family, community, history, and the systems around us shape the way care is experienced.

Hosted and produced by award-winning podcaster Charlotte Bayala, creator of The Cancer Caregiver Podcast and Caregiver Breathing Room.

Season One begins in Puerto Rico, where voices in English and Spanish tell stories of cancer and dementia caregiving on the island and what those experiences can reveal about the ways we care for one another.

Caregiving, told from the inside.

Follow Narratives of Care now so you don’t miss Season One.

Thank you to my tribe of supporters who listened to many early versions of this tralier and shared thoughtful feedback.