It must have been when my dad got sick last year. For the first time in his life he was in the hospital for an extended period of time, and my mother proved in many ways unable to cope. I 've heard that you know you're an adult when your parents stop taking care of you and you start taking care of them, but I didn't understand it until then. I'm now very aware of the idea that one day, perhaps not in the far off future, my parents will be gone. I appreciate them even more now, but it's hard to give up the feeling that I'm late to the party in many ways.