The Days of Love and Service: The Vocation of Caretaking

Millions of Americans know firsthand the joys, responsibilities, and hardships of caregiving.

In the United States, 53 million people are caretakers. Biba Kayewich

The alarm sounds every morning at 6 o'clock, but as Anne Wagner explained, no one’s off to work or school in this Mocksville, North Carolina, household. Since 2022, Anne has been the primary caretaker for her husband, Ric, who retired in 2019 as the CEO of Piedmont Federal Savings Bank.

“It’s time for the first medication, and then I do early morning exercises with Ric. When you have Parkinson’s, you have to think big and act big, because one of the characteristics of Parkinson’s is that everything is small. Your writing is small, your voice smaller. So we do the big exercises first, moving our arms and shouting out when we do that about four times.”