When I was 9 years old, my grandfather suffered a debilitating stroke from which he would never recover. As is often the case in families, my mother, the oldest of three children, assumed responsibility for his care while he lay in an infantile state two floors above mine. Everyday before dawn, she bathed, fed, and medicated him while my grandmother watched her daughter assume a role she never should have played. After the early morning shift, she resumed her role as married mother of three before tending to my grandfather’s nightly needs before finally sleeping for a few hours before the cycle repeated. My mother was no longer afforded a…
