Bringing Home Mom and Dad

Newsweek prints a weekly "My Turn" essay from a reader. The July 21 edition is from Anne Kennedy Rickover, who writes about the decision she and her parents made to have them move closer to her home as they began to have more difficulty managing their daily activities. She describes the decision to ask her parents to move to her hometown as similar to the decision to have a child, requiring planning for a life-altering event.

I hadn't been pregnant in 20 years, but this was planned just as my previous pregnancies had been. For no logical reason, I woke up one day and knew that it was correct; my entire being knew it was precisely the right time. Of course, the clarity was subtly infiltrated with uncertainties and fears as soon as the decision was made.

When I woke up that morning a little more than a year ago, I knew it was time to ask my parents to move closer to me. By closer, I mean 1,300 miles closer—all the way from suburban Philadelphia to Lincoln, Neb. The logistics, both geographically and culturally, were overwhelming. The distance between the East Coast and the Midwest had never seemed so vast.