Or maybe you have a very hectic life as it is and know you don't have the time to take care of someone. Maybe you just started your own business and you work from eight in the morning till nine at night. Maybe you've got three kids of your own or you just started graduate school. You feel helpless. Feelings that have been buried for years begin to surface.
Life takes on a new heaviness.
Suddenly it occurs to you that if this could happen to them it could happen to you, and you want to run away. You find yourself thinking about your own mor-tality, crying for no reason, wondering if there is a God, hugging your children fiercely, obsessed with keeping busy. You realize you never told this person you love him or her out loud. You can't get out of bed in the morning. You cope the best you can.