| My name is Michelle and I am 32 years old. My 42 year-old sister, Jaci, was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer at Thanksgiving 2002. She was not a smoker. No one had expected (or prepared for) this diagnosis. She was an employed mother of two children and a wife who had recently relocated to Kansas City. Jaci's and her husband's families live in Minnesota. I live in Massachusetts. There are no "free" caregivers living near them. Luckily I am a teacher who could take a month-long break over the holidays to be with her. While there I cared for her daughter, cooked, took her to medical appointments, took her out in her wheelchair, and was her shoulder to cry on as she lost her independence and health. But I've had to return to work and my siblings and elderly parents are unable to be with Jaci due to their own care responsibilities and financial limitations.
With the loss of Jaci's income and one child in college, her husband must continue working. She is largely alone during the daytime. Her minister and former coworkers stop by, but she's made few close friends in Kansas. The telephone is her only access to loving caregivers.
With the increased mobility of the American workforce, our situation cannot be unique. How do families deliver care when family members must spread across the US to get good jobs?
Wish List:
1. Her husband or our brother or I need paid time off work to care for her. None of us can financially afford to quit working. FMLA is unpaid leave and doesn't help us.
2. We need affordable daycare for her. She is confined to bed now and needs someone to help her during the day.
3. While airlines offer bereavement airfares, this does not apply to needing to frequently visit a sibling with terminal cancer. Providing care long-distance is economically daunting. | 
