When I looked around me at age 60, I noticed many of my friends spending a tremendous number of hours taking care of their aging parents. The tasks they performed took months and those months often turned into years. They arranged drop-in caregivers, picked up prescriptions, took over management of their finances, helped sell their home, chauffeured them to doctor appointments, and in some cases, moved back into their childhood room to take on the role of live-in caregiver. 

My own parents both died rather suddenly when I was in my thirties, so I haven't had a personal experience of this parent-child reversal, but nevertheless it struck me profoundly. I turned to my husband and asked, “Who is going to do that for us?”