So the last time I was there a few months ago, I leaned in, I held my mom's face,

and I started singing some Christian hymns to her that she loved in Korean.

Well, as much as I could sing it in Korean, and I started repeating it.

And she would smile. She loved it. I mean, she didn't know what was going on, but she smiles and she kind of looks at me but doesn't.

But the fact that she's reacting and has that reaction and she looks so happy, it really soothed my soul.

Welcome back everybody to So Your Parents Are Old.

I'm Vanessa Grigoriades.

Today we are talking with Amara Walker.

She's a journalist, a longtime CNN anchor, and someone who spent her career telling the stories of others with clarity and grace.

He just started telling me. He was eight or nine years old. It was pure chaos.

He said, Amra, I was running for my safety, for my life in the middle of this war while bombs

were flying, and I was barefooted. Didn't even have shoes. She's on the board of the Alzheimer's Association.

She's doing a bit of a pivot, professional-wise.

And off-camera, she is a daughter who is navigating some of the same very complex terrain

that so many of us are right now, caring for her aging mom, her legacy,

trying to be present for those she loves. So welcome, Amara. Thank you, Vanessa, and thank you for

touching on this really important topic that so many of us are going through being a part of

the sandwich generation.

I know. How old are your kids? Mine are five and seven, but my journey began right when my seven-year-old was born, and that's when I started seeing the signs, but the denial went on for

for many, many years. Many years. How many, how many is many?

Well, you know, my mom and I were super close, right? And we, I would call her multiple

times a day and we would have all kinds of conversations, you know, ranging from the

...