I think the reason she chose me to be her confidante is obvious: I’d been a caregiver. I’d been there. I would get it

After about a year, it became clear to me that my husband belonged in a day-care program, but, of course, this was not something he’d agree to — and I knew better than to suggest ...

I know this sounds unbelievable. A doctor who, for a year, would advise me — a person he’d never met — over the phone about a patient he had never seen?

In these instances, my instinct to spare my children and grandchildren was outweighed by my desperation