abaya

Thanks, Medusa. I appreciate your commiseration, and especially your point that it is not always "onlies" who have to make this decision (is it a decision, or a result of other people's unwillingness/inability to take responsibility?). I guess in a perfect family, there would be at least a few siblings who were all willing to work together somehow to get their parent(s) through old age and death, without placing the burden unduly on one subfamily or another. But how often does that really happen, I wonder...

In any case, this is one reason why ktspktsp and I hope to have more than one child (heck, even two isn't a guarantee of less burden, since that's his case and he still feels a weight). I don't want any of my offspring to feel that kind of heaviness, all on one person, as I grow older. Maybe I'm just American in that sense, I don't know... I don't want anyone to care for me out of obligation, but because it's their own decision. I'd rather live alone or in a group home than place that kind of burden on a child, y'know?

__________________
And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran