My life as a caregiver began at the age of 7. That’s how old I was when my mother gave birth to my youngest sibling, Nancy. Our sibling group of seven kids was seen as three subgroups: Judy was the second oldest of the two “big girls” followed by the two “boys” and then the three “little girls” Jean, Ellen, and Nancy.  

We “big girls” were each given an assignment of younger siblings to be “in charge of” whenever our parents were busy with other things.  Maura’s caregiving assignment was to focus on the oldest of our two brothers and the oldest of our three younger sisters. My assignment was to focus on the younger of the two boys as well as the middle of our three youngest sisters. We were all “in charge” of the seventh child, our youngest sister Nancy who had Down Syndrome.