This is NPR's Life Kit with tools to help you get it together.

Imagine this. You're living it up in New York City

six months into the job of your dreams in late night TV

and you get a call that changes everything.

That's what happened to Jacqueline Revere in 2016.

I was on the subway. I received a phone call from my mom's

friend who said, there's something wrong with your mom.

You need to fly home.

When she got home, it was really bad.

Jacqueline's mom had Alzheimer's disease and her mental state had been declining.

The mortgage hadn't been paid in two months and a foreclosure notice waited for her.

There was like spoiled food everywhere and my mom was not in a mental space

where she could be coherent.

Before getting sick, her mother was also taken care of her own mother with dementia.

Suddenly at age 29, Jacqueline became a full-time caregiver, taking care of both her mother and her grandmother.

I was just kind of like dropped into the middle of caring for two people who I love.

And so there is a huge emotional, mental and physical side of care that we just don't talk about that much.

One in five Americans are like Jacqueline.

According to a 2020 report from the National Alliance for Caregiving and the AARP,

that's more than 50 million Americans acting as unpaid caregivers to family members and loved ones.

I'm T.K. Dutess.

Before I was a reporter, I used to be a former healthcare provider for 15 years.

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