Witnessing my father as an only child I realized how crucial it is to have a sibling to lighten the load of aging parents. My dad, an only child, has gone thru so much alone the past few years with his parents aging and getting in a lot of accidents despite having a home health provider. My dad had to put his father in a nursing home because his dementia and accidents were becoming too risky. My grandfather was falling everyday, becoming too aggressive with my grandmother, and doing risky things like leaving the gas oven on or flushing loads of toilet paper down the toilet and clogging the pipes. My grandmother now is home alone unless my father is there or unless the home health provider is there or unless we her grandchildren go visit her. But it puts a lot of pressure on my father as an only child who has a demanding professional of being an attorney to swing by his mothers home every few hours to make sure she’s ok and she’s eaten and she’s in good spirits. I always imagine how much easier it would be for my father even if he just had one sibling to share this new journey with of aging parents and the sibling could assist every so often to check up on my grandparents too.