Anthony,

Thank you for the thoughtful comment. You know I'm a long-time fan of your writing, particularly the articles about how your wife and you care for each other--and what it looks like to be the person who is "lucky" to feel better, but also "unlucky" to have to shoulder more of the work. It's a quandary.

Of course more people than not have these challenges; most people do not live in the same area with their children. The parents don't want to move (or can't), or the children don't want to (or can't). The having to be on the spot aspect of caregiving work is something that really makes it difficult. There is just no way around that, short of maybe caregiving robots but honestly, how much fun can that be? In a perfect world, taking care of other people would be better paid and higher status. Too bad it isn't; all this money in the world and none of it goes to the right people.

I wish you luck with your caregiving. I don't mean to complain about mine, particularly as these are the glory days of my mom still being ambulatory and knowing who I am. I don't begrudge her the care. It's just more of a family dynamic thing. If anything, we were all too lucky for so long, thinking we were and could truly be "independent." I think long-term it will be a good thing that I've learned earlier than my mom that human independence is a fiction.

Thank you for reading, Anthony, and I am pulling for good luck for you and yours--