Parents with All Their Marbles: A Survival Guide for the Kids

Guest Pamela Carey addresses the issues of love and logistics, devotion and diplomacy, in the often difficult process keeping your marbles when your aging loved ones have kept theirs. A great deal of attention is being rightfully given to care for those afflicted with Alzheimer's disease. But many of our elderly who fortunate escape the disease do face other natural challenges that come with aging. There is a point at which those who have cared for us now require care. Just as their children grew into being independent, they now are growing into dependence. This process is perhaps more difficult for the elderly of sound mental health because of their awareness of the process. The ensuing emotional, physical, financial and geographic demands on their families and other caregivers is lacking the vast amount of guidance now available to those raising children.

PAMELA CAREY is the author of Minor League Mom, A Mother's Journey Through the Red Sox Farm Teams (2009) and Elderly Parents with All Their Marbles: A Survival Guide for the Kids (2014). The mother of Red Sox farm team veterans Tim and Todd Carey, Pamela holds a B.A. from Colby College and an M.A. from Columbia University Teachers College. A former information director for the Delaware Dept. of Education, she taught in Connecticut, Georgia and Maine. Later, she earned an advanced degree in interior design, and opened Interiors by Pamela in Cumberland, R.I. There, she taught adult education and served in many civic capacities. Pamela and her husband, Charley, are "snowbirds," residing in Delray Beach, Fla., in the winter and Westport, Mass., in the summer.