The Sandwich Generation Blues

[SheilaT]

3. When my mother was in what turned out

to be her final illness, and none of her six kids lived closer than 800 miles away, it made me think long and hard about how my life might play out.

I'm 63, my two sons are 25 and 29 -- another late bloomer boomer -- and they both live many miles away. I've already told them that someday I will relocate to be in the same city as one or the other of them, not because I'd expect to move in with either one, but just to make the end-of-life stuff a little easier. I'm divorced and don't ever expect to remarry, so I don't have an ailing spouse to worry about. Indeed, it's just those kinds of aging issues that make me very reluctant to even consider getting involved with anyone. I personally am remarkably healthy, and I don't go around saying, Oh you never know what might happen, because I won't invite negativity. But so many of my age mates have all sorts of health issues, and I'm quite frankly not willing to take them on.