Caring for someone with a serious illness stretches people spiritually and emotionally, often beyond what they might have thought possible. Dr. Arthur Kleinman, a professor of psychiatry and anthropology at Harvard University, calls this “enduring the unendurable” in his recently published book, “The Soul of Care: The Moral Education of a Husband and a Doctor.”…

The loss of a husband, the death of a sister, and taking in an elderly mother with dementia: This has been a year like none other for Dr. Rebecca Elon. The 66-year-old Elon has dedicated her professional life to helping older adults. But her experiences over the past year have taught her what families go through…

On a recent Thursday afternoon, Rhianna Alvarado struggled to don her protective gloves, which were too big for her petite hands. With her mom coaching her every move, she edged close to her father and gently removed the plastic tube from his throat that allows him to breathe. She then cautiously inserted a new one. “What’s next?”…

Full disclosure: Even though I’ve been obsessed with health issues my entire life, I’ve never been interested in working in the medical field. Most of my classmates from my all-girls high school chose nursing as a career, but I was so freaked out by hospitals and illness that I was the only teenager in my…