ABSTRACT
This paper was born out of extensive reflection on the lengthy experience of caring for an elderly aunt by one of the authors. Being brought face to face with the “duty” to visit, to stand with her and witness the state of her pain, frustrated by my powerlessness to soothe her, desiring for this duty to be over, but needing to see it through; sensing that this fidelity was somehow her lifeline. Even though the author’s debt to her was immense from an earlier time . . . she felt she received nothing from this relationship during this time . . . and she vividly recalls an almost physical sense of dragging herself to frequently visit her.
