The Caregivers

Last Thursday I sat at Thanksgiving dinner with my extended family, buried in food and conversation and enjoying the soporific effect of the sweet potato-marshmallow casserole. With the kids at the card table, the elders sprinkled around the periphery, I couldn't help noticing that my generation had become the core of our large family. Try as we might to delay the growing-up process, by marrying and having children late, my sisters, cousins and I have finally graduated from the kids' table. While that has its advantages (uncontested second helpings of pie, for instance), it also confirms us as members of the...