Los Angeles Times

Commentary: I’m one of millions struggling to care for aging parents. It shouldn’t be this hard

There are an estimated 38 million unpaid caregivers in the United States.

After years of traveling abroad for work, I found myself grounded last year, brought home to Southern California not out of nostalgia but out of necessity. My sister and I made the life-altering decision to purchase a single-story house for our ailing, octogenarian parents after recognizing that they could no longer care for each other. My father had multiple physical ailments, while my mother was gradually slipping away due to Alzheimer’s.

My brother moved in, and my sister, a nurse, visits from the Bay Area one week a month. Since my father died earlier this year, my siblings and I have taken turns caring for my mother, meticulously coordinating our schedules to also accommodate work and personal commitments. We went from

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