What does it mean when parents grow old? In his literary essay, bestselling author Volker Kitz tells the story of his father and uses it as an example to explore how family responsibility shifts when parents grow old. His book touches on the feelings and questions of an entire generation.
Imperceptibly at first, then increasingly clearly, the author’s aging father loses his bearings in the world. Volker Kitz accompanies him, from the overlooked first signs to the day when his father can’t remember how to swallow. Through hope and helplessness to the final farewell. To keep his own fear at bay, the son initially turns to memory: if he knows why something is happening, he thinks, he can influence what happens.
But he soon realizes that the real issues lie beneath memory. Gently but forcefully, he penetrates to feelings and questions that are affecting an entire generation and that no debate about the caretaking crisis can answer: What signs do I need to recognize? What decisions do I have to make, even against my parents' wishes? How do I maintain access to them, share pain, joy, commute into their world – without letting mine wither?
