Who’s Taking Care of Mom and Dad?
This has become a question of dread for many adults living in America
I never thought that by the time I had kids, I’d be down to only having one living parent around. When I was younger, I imagined my children growing up with both my Mother and Father in their lives. I pictured my Dad, using his silly faces and silly voices to make my kids laugh. I pictured him picking them up from school, being Santa Clause on Christmas, and teaching them how to cook Filipino food.
I envisioned all of these moments so clearly because the idea of losing him before any of those moments happened seemed so wildly unrealistic. But, by the time I was thirty, my Dad was gone. And just like that, the reality that mortality was no longer a distant thought hit me like a ton of bricks.
I’ve been having this same conversation over and over again with friends and even colleagues within my age group who are experiencing similar situations of either caring for a sick or dying parent or recently losing a parent. And we’re all in agreement that your thirties — let alone, younger — seems far too young to be dealing with these difficult situations, especially knowing that there are many others in our age group who still have both their parents and grandparents alive and well.
