Lemonada.

We started noticing my mom was just like, forgetting things. I could just tell that something was off, and she called me at the train station, said, Jessica, I don't know where to go. And that's when I found out it is likely early onset Alzheimer's disease, that she was only 66 at the time. I'm supposed to be grown, and I'm moving back home? That's not what was in the vision board in plan A, B, or C.

Across the country, so many of us are caring for older loved ones. More than one in five adults in the US are caregivers, and that number is only going to increase as our population gets older. By 2050, older adults represent over 20% of the population. So how are we going to take care of them? I'm Sujan Park. I'm also a caregiver. I care for my mom and dad. I have two kids. I work, and I feel exhausted. I often don't know how to do it. So for the second season of Uncared For, we're talking to caregivers about how they do it, how they care for an aging loved one while also taking care of themselves.

I was so into the health care and the day to day and the quality of life and trying to take care of myself and do my work and take care of everybody else.

We'll hear stories about feeling squeezed.

I have a little one and then also a geriatric one that I'm now taking care of at the same exact time.

Caregiving in a pandemic?

I was really aware that the chances of us getting through this were really slim, and so I just made every day count.

And the nightmare of figuring everything out alone.

The system is so confusing and so unclear. I almost said, I don't even want to do the paperwork. I'll just continue sacrificing because I I don't have the energy to navigate that process.

We'll get to all of that, but we'll also explore the flip side because caregiving can be beautiful.

Success is making sure that when she transitions, she leaves knowing it was a beautiful journey, and I was so loved. I was so loved. Somebody loved me unconditionally.

We'll talk about how to support caregivers because we deserve more.

The value of family caregivers in this country is $600 billion if we were being paid. This is a massive opportunity for a long, overdue culture change. There's someone out there that's struggling, and there's a system that's failing them, and that has to stop.

Uncared For Season 2 from Lemonada Media. Available May 15th, wherever you get your podcasts.