Are We Obligated to Care for Our Aged Parents?
At what point are we responsible for the needs of our parents?
As we age, our parents enter into a new level of life. They begin to decline in their strengths and abilities, while their health starts to show warning signs. It isn’t easy to watch, and every small health concern becomes a worry.
My parents are 81 and 76. My dad has always been tougher than his wife, my mother, who has lung problems, and who suffers from COPD. My mom wears a 24/7 oxygen tube in her nose, and her life is full of regular calls to 911, as her oxygen tanks fail, or her body fails in absorbing it. My sister and I are the only children of theirs’ who are left. My brother passed away last October from Covid, at the age of 57.
This, obviously, has added stress to my parents’ lives, as well as their underlying health conditions. My sister and I are on continual stand-by for the next hospital trip.
Last Friday, my sister called in a panic. I waited for the typical report of mom going into the hospital via ambulance. Instead, she yelled through the phone that my dad was taken in the ambulance due to a stroke. “You need to get your ass down here and deal with this! I am too busy for this shit!” Those were her exact words.
