We are a semi-retired couple in our mid 60-s. DH is very ill with lung cancer, gets terribly breathless, has no energy, can't sllep; he is undergoing immunotherapy and takes a lot time off work for sickness and hospitals. I stopped working 8 years ago due to total lack of energy, constant pains and brain fog. I have many health conditions.
2 months ago we managed to sell our spacious apartment and move into a rental house. We did not have time to find a suitable bungalow to buy but we had to move out asap as the flat was on the second floor without a lift, and the DH really struggled with stairs. So we decided to rent for now and see how his health goes. We really needed to move into a bungalow, but the rental ones were getting snapped. So we had to rent a large house that had a bedroom downstairs for DH.
It has been a drastic change for us moving from a flat into a house. We used to always live in houses up to 12 years ago, but we were in much better health back then. I discovered now that my legs and knees do not like stairs these days and we really miss living on one level. The garden was left in a terrible state and I have to spend an awful lot of time working on it, and then I am in pain for days, unable to do much. The house we moved into has been renovated but there were so many unfinished jobs, that writing to the estate agent and organising contractors consumed all my time to the point that I still have no time to unpack our belongings and we live with a bare minimum of items that I managed to find. There are mountains of unpacked boxes all over this big house, and I just can't unpack them. They are too heavy to lift or even move.
Everything is on me, hubby is too ill, and I have no energy to do anything except the everyday jobs of cooking, washing and tidying up, and most importantly - caring for my sick DH. I am at abreaking point and I feel I desperately need to get away on holiday just to recover from stress and exhaustion, the house move has made me so ill.
There is no family to help, and no friends as we moved to a different town. We desperately need domestic help with lifting heavy boxes and moving them around, with gardening and some house jobs. We are paying a lot of rent, so there is not much money left to pay for hiring labour, and I would not know where to look. Are there any social services that might help? Where in Horsham do I find an odd jobs man or just unskilled workers to help with boxes on occasional basis? Any other ideas?