However, most adult children provide every bit as much care and support to their aging parents as the case in the "good old days", and most older people do not feel abandoned.
During my training, I took care of a man in his 50s with a devastating surgical complication: his abdominal incision had split open a week after an emergency operation.
After some months, she gave up eating because she had decided she would rather die than live without dignity, because of the patronizing way in which her carers spoke to her.
While he has helped care for his wife's aging parents, the couple still sometimes butt heads over who does things like walking the dog, now that he is out of work.