On March 7, 2001, I wrote “Cassie passed her writing test—and called me at the office—filled with tears, joy, and gratitude. She did not know she was helping me think of myself as a teacher again.” When I wrote that, I was both my mother’s caregiver and a literacy specialist. I would not remember that [...]

Here are a couple of facts that might surprise you: Nearly half of all Americans will need long-term care at some point. About one in five of us over age 50 will require this kind of care within the next year. If you’re a Baby Boomer—one of the 78 million of us born [...]

Many adult children of aging parents feel lost when one of those parents is diagnosed with dementia.   What can I do to help her?  What exactly can he do and not do now? How can I have the same relationship with this parent? Life with a parent before the diagnosis will never be the same as [...]

For years it seemed that there weren’t many mature faces on the silver screen. Hollywood was bursting with teenage angst and first loves, high school proms and college spring breaks. But where were the older characters? If they were seen at all, they were rarely the main attraction. They always seemed to be the [...]