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It was easy to joke with my parents when we were younger about "putting them in a home" when they got older or unable to take care of themselves, but now that it is becoming much more difficult for my father to stay at home, that's not a conversation I want to have. It's not a joke anymore. He's at the point where he needs regular, if not constant, supervision and motivation just to keep going and get moving every day, but he's still got the capacity to be active. He's not just laying there oblivious to the world and waiting to die. But family isn't enough; we're not trained to manage his maladies and we have responsibilities of our own that we need to manage.

Nothing is simple when it comes to healthcare in this country, and money has ruined it all. You can only really live out your life at home if you're unnaturally healthy or are independently wealthy. And you need dedicated people to care for you when you're unable to care for yourself, but those people need money to live on as well because they can't get healthcare for free either.

I wonder what will happen to me when I get to be his age or get diagnosed with a similar illness. We all need compassionate, personal healthcare as we age but I fear that humanity is not capable of the shift required to give every person their dignity until their last breath.

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