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That makes me think of a very sad story. When I was in my early 20's, I was a PCA (personal care attendant) for an elderly couple. I lived in their house, had a bedroom upstairs, made their meals, did the house and clothes, and helped the wife with her bathing and personal needs. She was around 88 at the time and he was in his early 90's. Sadly, he was an active alcoholic even at that old age, and I would frequently need to bring him to the hospital. Anyway, the wife, Louise, had Alzheimer's, pretty bad. She had days and sometimes even moments where she had no clue who I was, and would be outright frightened, and other days she was very lucid and knew exactly who I was. During the time I lived there, her adult daughter, who she mentioned A LOT, Carol, never came to visit. As time passed and I grew close with Louise, she started calling me Carol. It tore me up that she assumed I must be her daughter because I was there caring for her. The husband made a few remarks here and there about her only waiting for their money. One time, the daughter did visit, out of the blue. She took them and me out to lunch. During lunch Louise became confused again and started calling me Carol, and asking me to help her cut her food. Her daughter leaned in and tried to help, and Louise said, "No! I want my daughter to help me". Carol got upset at this and said "I am your daughter!" And then Louise seemed to gain absolute lucidity for a moment and looked her straight in the eye and said "You never visit. She takes care of me, she's there every day, you never have been. She is more of a daughter to me than you will ever be". This upsets me even now writing that and reliving it in my head, it was awful. The daughter went home later and never did return. A year or so later the husband ended up putting himself and his wife in a home together and I stopped working for them. Amazing how long ago this was and it still bothers me talking about it.
That is so sad, that the daughter never returned, but it just goes to show you that some children don't want the burden of their parents. That really bothers me because our parent(s) made sure that we were taken care of when we could not care for ourselves, and I think they should receive that in return. My mother will never see the likes of nursing home.
Very sad that the daughter could not see her wrong doings against her parents.
