Caregivers Helped Us Be a Family. Everyone Should Have That Option.

Rachael King, Wife of Ady Barkan

“My 7-year-old son, Carl, realized that it was Tuesday and asked why Robert was not coming to our house that day. Robert had been a caregiver for my husband, Ady Barkan, for more than five years, helping with Ady’s day-to-day activities as he became progressively paralyzed because of the neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or A.L.S.

Tuesdays were Robert’s days, when he would help Ady work during the day and pick up Carl and his sister, Willow, in the afternoon, often going out for an activity in our red wheelchair-accessible van. Robert also helped Ady get into bed four nights a week, arriving around the kids’ bedtime and staying until 10 p.m.