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    Steve Lopez: Work, school, caregiving. Multiple generations honor a family member while going about their lives

    by Steve Lopez, Los Angeles Times Sep 27, 2023 6 minutes
    Rosa Angelica Saldana, 81, in wheelchair, is helped home by her grandchildren, from left, Paola Rojas, 19, her brother Max Rojas, 14, and their mother Mariella Rojas in Northridge on Sept. 11, 2023.

    When Mariella Rojas goes into her mother's bedroom each morning, she doesn't know whether 81-year-old Rosa Angelica Saldana will recognize her.

    "Sometimes she'll say, 'Mariella,' and she'll caress my hand," the pre-K teacher says. "Or sometimes she's just staring at me and looks spaced out."

    Her mother, once vibrant and industrious, lived on her own until her world went out of focus about seven years ago. Mariella panicked when she learned Saldana hadn't returned from an errand; eventually, she found her in a bank, where "she looked so lost." Another time, her mother got off a bus at her scheduled stop but couldn't remember how to get home from there.

    Mariella and her family briefly considered moving Saldana to a nursing facility, but the cost at the time, starting at $5,000 a month, was unaffordable. And Mariella says she couldn't imagine leaving her mother with strangers and worrying about the quality of her care.

    Mariella asked her husband, Julio, if it would be OK for her

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