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My parents are aging and there are difficult issues. It's strange to have children at the beginning of life and parents nearing the end.

People think it's a terrible tragedy when somebody has Alzheimer's. But in my mother's case, it's different. My mother has been unhappy all her life. For the first time in her life, she's happy.

The thing you realize as you get older is that parents don't know what the Hell they're doing and neither will you when you get to be a parent.

Losing a parent is a hard thing... I often sit here and think it would be great if mum and dad were alive and had a chance to see their grandkids grow up.

No matter who you are, what you've accomplished, what your financial situation is - when you're dealing with a parent with Alzheimer's, you yourself feel helpless. The parent can't work, can't live alone, and is totally dependent, like a toddler. As the disease unfolds, you don't know what to expect.

I have been a parent since I was 25. That's a large chunk of my adult life. Mother or father, it transforms you completely.

In America, people rarely stay in the town where they grew up, rarely stay in close proximity to their parents throughout their lives. You rarely find parents in their old age being taken care of by their children.

My parents are retired, basically.

My mother had early-onset Alzheimer's, and it took her four years to die. She was only 44; I was 14.

There's no such thing as ageing gracefully. I don't meet people who want to get Alzheimer's disease, or who want to get cancer or arthritis or any of the other things that afflict the elderly. Ageing is bad for you, and we better just actually accept that.