One of the hardest things about caregiving is that you rarely know what comes next.

Your parent may be doing well today.

Three months from now, things could look exactly the same.

Or one fall, hospitalization, diagnosis, or change in mobility could rearrange everything.

There’s a particular kind of loneliness that can come with caregiving.

It isn't necessarily about being physically alone.

It's watching everyone else's life continue to move while yours feels strangely suspended.

There’s a strange thing that can happen when someone you love begins to need more care.

Your life doesn’t exactly stop.

You still get up in the morning. You pay bills. You make dinner. You answer emails. You go to appointments. You handle whatever needs handling.

From the outside, your life may look fairly normal.

But inside, it can feel like you’ve stopped moving forward.