How much of yourself do you have to give to your partner in support, and what is the true cost if...
Category: Caring for a Romantic Partner
The Caregivers
A few years into the illness, Janie could sense it worsening. Buzz, who had never yelled at her,...
The Care Crisis Isn’t What You Think
What my research participant made clear to me that day is that the lack of robust and accessible...
When My Wife Developed Alzheimer’s, the Story of Our Marriage Kept Us Connected
In December 2012, at age sixty-one, Judy received a diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer’s. The news...
What if There’s No Such Thing as Closure?
[Pauline] Boss, an emeritus professor of family social science — the study of families and close...
United in Grief: Two Widow’s Perspectives
The first months after our partners passed away, we saw all the survival mechanisms we didn’t know...
My Stepdad Has Alzheimer’s. Can My Mom Date Someone Else?
What are your thoughts on the spouse of an early-onset Alzheimer’s patient dating while said...
A Marriage Stressed by Obsessions and Compulsions
As soon as we learned a new baby was on the way, Mike’s anxiety became more than an occasional...
Benefits and disability: ‘I’ll never cohabit again, to protect myself’
Benefits exist to support people in times of need. But for some disabled people, household...
Don’t Let a Loved One’s Health Problems Come Between You
I’ve seen people with difficult-to-manage physical and mental health conditions (or hard-to-break...
The Story Of Britney Spears Is A Story Of Disability Rights
A conservatorship — often called a guardianship — puts a court-mandated guardian in charge of...
Out of the Attic: A Caregiver’s Rage and Jane Eyre
Tired and on edge, I was worried by rumblings from my husband Brad’s doctors that they might send...
How Polyamorists and Polygamists Are Challenging Family Norms
Diana Adams, a family lawyer in New York, has become the leading figure in the conversation...
When It Comes to Caregiving, Women Are Already Toast
In despair, I typed “caregiver” into Google, planning to follow it up with “resources” or “support...
The Costly, Painful, Lonely Burden of Care
After spending four months in the hospital, becoming temporarily blind and unable to walk, eat,...
Don’t Tell a Caregiver to Stay Positive. Here’s How to Help Instead
My husband had been in the hospital, critically ill, for weeks one day when I broke down in tears...
50 Million Americans Are Unpaid Caregivers. We Need Help.
For four months, my husband, Brad, had been recovering from a stem-cell transplant that saved his...
Making the Mental Load Visible
Too often we compartmentalize our caregiving — childcare, aged care, sick care, disabled care. Yet...
We Needed More Significant Others
After multiple biopsies over many weeks (Scott said he felt as if he were an Ikea desk being...
Never say I didn’t bring you flowers
I was disabled, and she became my legs; over the years, as I grew sicker, I became more and more...
Moving Forward After Caregiving Ends
In November of 2020, my beloved husband died. His death brought 23 years of caregiving to an end....
Lisa Raitt on taking care of her husband as he struggles with young-onset Alzheimer’s
In the early hours of the morning, Bruce Wood will wake up next to his wife, former Conservative...
The Promise That Tested My Parents Until the End
When I was still young enough to pay attention to the things my mother and father said, I would...
The Ventilator: Life, Death And The Choices We Make At The End
For much of their lives together, Stephanie Rinka and her husband, John, had ongoing conversations...