Joshua Hotaka Roth
Professor of Anthropology
Location: Cleveland, L1

Does the need for elder care offer an opportunity for something more than exhaustion and burnout? As the boomer generation approaches their 80s and more and more people experience an extended period of advanced old age, can we imagine this period as an opportunity to deepen intergenerational relationships? This presentation documents the kind of project that can help transform this stage of life into a generative and emotionally rewarding one. The project focuses on Roth’s own experiences these past four years with his dad, currently 95, and his mom, 94. They live in the NY apartment that Roth grew up in, along with three care workers who take turns with them on three-day shifts. Like many who no longer can live on their own, his parents experienced arrangements for daily caretaking as an invasion of privacy and control, and they didn’t appreciate his efforts on their behalf. Roth documents his efforts to pivot, once his parents’ well-being was assured, and focus on things that they welcomed and appreciated. The graphic memoir project helped sustain their relationship the past four years, and made his regular visits to his parents something he looked forward to, rather than an emotionally trying chore.