I am not sure how best to say this, so vague but clear enough is the direction I'm gonna go with.

My mother's health has been deteriorating for some time now, due to a combination of factors that left things worse than they needed to be. By the time we knew what might be happening, it was basically too late to do much. It isn't anybody's fault, though some did help less than others. This has been taking a toll on my father, who basically went from retiring from his full time job to being a full time carer.

Watching her slowly get worse has been tough on us all, but especially on Dad since he's the only one that's with her pretty much all the time. My younger brother and I both work, and I haven't lived there in years. Several days ago, my father was admitted to hospital with chest pains that started early morning and ran through to late morning. I agreed to stay with Mum for the duration to help my brother look after her, and visited Dad in hospital to get the info on the situation and assure him that Mum would be alright. My aunt and a family friend have both helped out so Mum is never alone, but of course none of us are able to commit to any measure of full time care on a permanent basis. Dad was, but with this development he too is likely to need someone less fragile to help him keep tabs on Mum and to keep an eye on him too.

I'm going to try and persuade them to apply for a carer to help out, not necessarily to live with them but someone who can at least visit a few times a week to lessen the strain on them both. There are certain other things that need seeing to, but the short version of all this is that I'm just not sure yet when my routine will return to normal.