Ariel’s Story

In 2015, when I was living in New York and my parents were living in Maine, my mother’s health took a severe downturn. She had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) in 1993, and it slowly progressed over the years, until she was using an electric wheelchair, with some use of her left hand, but no use of her other limbs.

My dad and home health aides took care of her at home full time. In the fall of 2015, she began to have chronic pain and to be unable to sleep at night. My dad was overwhelmed with caring for her at night and working during the day.

I was working as a lawyer at a public defender’s office in the Bronx, but I took leave under FMLA and came home for three months to help them through this period. I stayed up nights with my mom, helped her home health aides during the day as they cared for her increased needs, and trained new nighttime aides. I also took the precious opportunity to spend time with my parents, time that cannot be replaced because my mother passed away on March 1st, 2016.

My leave was paid for a month by my employer, and then I started taking unpaid leave. I was fortunate that my husband was working and we had his income as well as his health insurance, and that we did not have many expenses at the time. I would have left my job or done anything that I had to to be able to be with my family under the circumstances, but I can’t imagine how heartbreaking it would be not to be able to afford to do so.

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