Send the carer the card, not the household
Cards and gifts go to the patient or to the family. The carer receives almost nothing addressed to them alone.
The BeingKind editorsPublished How this is written
Why it lands
Attention flows to the ill person, which is right, but it means the carer spends the whole of a holiday facilitating everyone else's contact with someone else. Receiving something addressed only to them, acknowledging what they specifically are doing, is startling in that context — and carers consistently describe a small unexpected gesture as the thing they remembered about that year.
How
Address it to them by name, and say what you are acknowledging rather than sending a generic card: “I know what this year has taken. This is just for you.” Something they can use alone in ten minutes — good coffee, a book — beats anything for the household.
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