Randi Schofield tried her best to not dwell on all the ways her life changed, on the pieces of herself that got lost in the shuffle. She was a 34-year-old single mother who, not long ago, was in the throes of a big life transition. She had left her full-time job of eight years as a personal bailiff to a local judge. She was burned out, ready for something new.
She pulled $30,000 from her retirement savings and was planning to give herself all of 2022 to expand the small catering business she had always dreamed about. This would be the year she bet on herself. It was risky, but she had a plan.
Then, in late January 2022, she received the news that medics were pulling her father out of his car.
Yet increasing numbers of adult children are taking care of their parents, often shouldering the burden with no pay and little outside help — making their meals, helping them shower, bandaging their wounds and holding them up before they can fall. (The number of people living in nursing homes or assisted-living facilities make up less than 5 percent of the population 65 and older.)
