The impossible task of caring for ageing parents who did not care for you: ‘There’s a lot of reliving old triggers’

It’s hard under the best of circumstances. For those with difficult family relationships or estrangement, it’s even more complicatedGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe phone call came in mid-2016. “I’ve got cancer,” the old woman announced. Kathy*, a small business consultant, lived in Sydney. Her widowed mother, then in her 80s, lived in a large regional town four hours’ drive away.For the next five years, Kathy became her mother’s drive-in, drive-out carer, clocking up thousands of kilometres on her odometer. Continue reading...