It really depends on the person. My dad, a solitary man who was more interested in the news, was 78 when my mother was 50, me being 15. My mom was practically a single mother after I turned ten years old. How could I explain that my father had Alzheimer’s, when my mother’s parents were still healthy mentally and very active?

I felt abandoned and depressed and embarassed in high school, when everyone I knew had dads that spent time with their children and took them to sports games and taught them how to drive. (I was living in a very Suburban area at the time, where nuclear families were frequent.) It’s a tough decision to make, but it’s love, something people cannot stop… most of the time.