Jim

I'm glad you liked the song. While the lyrics do move me, the tune also conveys the sadness that you are posting about. Here's a link to the you tube music video - over 1 Million people have watched and listened to it. It's moving.
Rain by Patty Griffin
As for your children, it's a timeless problem: As Shakespeare wrote in 1605 in King Lear, Act 1, Scene 4
[quote]How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is
To have a thankless child! Away, away![/quote]

When my Dad needed treatments for prostate cancer and his local NJ Navy and Army hospitals would not take him since he was retired and due to budget cuts, they were only treating active duty personnel, only Walter Reed Medical in DC would treat him. I took off from work to argue with the bureacracy over getting him admitted as well as his treatments. I drove to visit him every night from Arlington Va after work for a month. Then he and my Mom stayed with my wife and I in our teeny condo for his subsequent outpatient visits and shorter hospitalizations for heart surgery. We were newly married and it was quite crowded and not very romantic but my wife never complained about me being a dutiful son. I'm glad I did it, and can still remember how proud my Dad was of me when I convinced the doctors to prescribe a couple cans of beer a night for him in the hospital.