I was recently reminded of the memories attached to my childhood home when I connected with a high school friend on Facebook. We hadn’t seen each other in almost 40 years, but she said she thought of me recently when she drove past our home. It wasn’t until after the sale of that home that I realized the grief was associated with the end of that chapter.

Sorry kids! Years ago, I wrote Nobody Wants Your Parents Stuff, but that’s a story to revisit another time. If anyone has aging parents, there comes a time when their roles, unfortunately, get switched. We become the caretakers, the ones who arrange doctor appointments and try to safeguard them from con artists preying on the elderly and whatnot. But there’s a window when they are happily empty nesters enjoying their freedom and, in many cases, downsizing. In my mother’s cas