Issues for Boomers: the illness or death of our parents

[SheilaT]

39. I'm "fortunate" in that we (I'm one of six children) were spared

the kind of caretaking of an elderly parent that happens to so many adult children.

My father basically drank himself to death. My mother had moved us children across the country from upstate NY to Tucson, AZ in 1963 because Dad was getting more and more abusive. Best thing she ever could have done for us.

My Mom was always in excellent health until she fell on Christmas Eve, then was in and out of hospitals and rehab places for three months. She was doing fine, recovering, when she suddenly had a stroke and died within thirty minutes. Her passing was unexpected, and we of course all wish she'd lived for many years more. But it could have been much worse, and is for many others.