Ida Christian, who suffers from dementia, gets help from her granddaughter, Yolanda Hunter (left), in blowing out the candles on her birthday cake. Yolanda quit her lucrative job to become Ida's full-time caregiver.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
AnnaBelle talks to her granddaughter Carley (right) and Carley's friends after they returned from lacrosse practice. "I'm not rich money-wise, but with my family I'm a millionaire," AnnaBelle says.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Natasha Shamone-Gilmore walks to church with her husband, Curtis (left), and her father, Franklin Brunson, 81, in Capitol Heights, Md. She has taken on the daily challenge of caring for her father, who is suffering from mild dementia. Her son Nicholas, 24, also lives in the family home.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Natasha Shamone-Gilmore has opted to place her father in a full-time adult health center during the day while she works for a nonprofit and her husband works for a regional transit system.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Geneva Hunter (left), who runs the secretarial operations for a Washington, D.C., law firm, decided to take a hands-on approach to her mother's care and moved Ida Christian, 89, into her home.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Ida Christian, who suffers from dementia, gets help from her granddaughter, Yolanda Hunter (left), in blowing out the candles on her birthday cake. Yolanda quit her lucrative job to become Ida's full-time caregiver.
Credit Kainaz Amaria / NPR
Kelley Hawkins (left) smiles with her grandmother AnnaBelle Bowers, 87, while at lunch in Harrisburg, Pa. Kelley shares full-time care of AnnaBelle with her sister-in-law LaDonna Martin. Both are nurses with two children each, and move Annabelle, who has limited mobility, every two weeks from one home to another.
The Great Recession slammed into all age groups, flattening the career dreams of young people and squeezing the retirement accounts of middle-aged savers. It financially crippled many elderly people who had thought they could stand on their own.
