Ah, Mortality

I happened to read an article about caring for aging parents last week in the Atlantic, and this week I picked up Loosing Mum and Pup, Christopher Buckley's memoir about his parents in their last years of life. In the article, the author's relationship with her father was extremely conflicting. In some respects she was harsh,  as she made it clear she considered him to be a large expensive burden and couldn't wait until he passed away, yet she was also an enabler and seemed to acquiesce to his every bizarre whim and financial request.
Christopher Buckley's memoir was a much more interesting read as his  parents were more fully fleshed out in the book and his relationship with them thought complicated was ultimately one of love and admiration. It was interesting to read about the shifts in the parent child relationship through the years, culminating in the child's responsibility for deciding the final resting place of the parent. Taking care of an aging parent isn't something I'd given much thought to prior to reading these so I found myself examining my own parental relationships and thinking about how I might act in similar situations.