Catherine Graves chronicles her grief and guilt as a caregiver in her memoir, "Checking Out: An In-Depth Look at Losing Your Mind." Graves said she stayed strong during the five months she cared for her husband. But after his death in 2007 from an aggressive brain tumor, Graves declined into depression and anxiety and was eventually treated for post-traumatic stress.

 "The mental part of it was the hardest," she told ABCNews.com. "I was so depressed, but I couldn't be depressed because it wasn't about me. I was lonely and scared and the person that I knew had vanished."

It is human nature to avoid talking about difficult subjects. Nobody wants to deliver bad news or be the reminder of troubling events. Hence the phrase, “Don’t kill the messenger.”  However, we must have courage and proceed with these conversations at critical times in our lives. Some of the most difficult of these talks surrounds the failing health of loved ones. Even the most brilliant conversationalist can be at a loss when broaching the subject of a parent or spouse’s health dilemma.

People in our society remain profoundly uncomfortable with the dying process and even with discussing the needs of the dying. With our aging population, more and more people are confronting this challenge for themselves or for their parents.

Hospice is care that is provided during the last few months of a person’s life. People frequently think of hospice as a place. While hospice care may be provided in an inpatient facility or nursing home, hospice is actually a program and a philosophy of care that focuses on treatment of symptoms in the terminally ill patient. Hospice care can be provided in the home as well. The hospice philosophy includes treating physical, emotional and spiritual symptoms. Hospice care extends to the emotional and spiritual concerns of the family as well.  This unique approach to the family as the unit of care enables those closest to the patient to be included in treatment issues.

"Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole." ~ Roger Caras

Pets are often a wonderful addition to a home, and become integral and beloved members of our family.   They can make especially good companions for seniors, as they develop into loyal friends who remain at our side, especially at fragile times in our lives.  There are many physical and emotional benefits of having a pet at any age, but especially for seniors who tend to be at a  stage in their lives that they have additional free time and often spend more time at home.

While not a scientific fact, I think it’s fair to say that as a group, baby boomers are planners. We think about school options, from kindergarten to college, before kids are even born. We plan vacations with the precision of  a military drill. We research, evaluate, and make decisions based on information from friends, search engines, print ads, infomercials, and more. We are information hounds!

But, as the middle part of the sandwich in the sandwich generation, we don’t often put the same effort into planning for the future needs of our parents. We hear the words long-term care, retirement community, rehab and quickly do an about face and head for another latte. I get it. There are a million things to do right now, and it seems there is always more time to think about something we really don’t want to think about!