"Sandwich Generation" doesn't begin to describe my week!

My father moved in with us just one year ago and things have been going well. It's wonderful having him but it has been a "learn as we go" experience for both of us. He went from living alone but surrounded by friends in Kansas to being the new member of his daughter's family of four in San Francisco with no friends nearby.

This week's chapter started out with a visit to the Veterans Hospital and ended in major surgery and a week of trips back and forth to visit and keep his spirits up. Everyone talks about the sandwich generation but living it has become my life. With 2 children still at home - one in high school and one in college - I find myself exhausted at the end of the day with nothing much left to give. That's a normal day, but this week, my father's illness and the illness of a close friend who recently had surgery for a brain tumor, left me in pieces that I am desperately trying to hold together with a smile on my face.