Sick parent- stay at school or transfer home??

mamabear232
Wed, 01 May 2019 14:02:38 +0000

@webudiddy I am sorry you are dealing with this. Coincidentally, shortly after I started grad school (3.5 hours’ drive away from home), my mother was diagnosed with an advanced cancer and was told she had only a few months to live. We talked and she urged me to go ahead with my plans. I drove home every weekend and spend my winter and summer breaks at home. Fortunately, she outlived her prognosis by a couple of years but did not live to see me finish my degree.

I am not advising you to follow this path because every situation is different. I agree that another frank discussion with your father may be in order. He may be emotionally invested in having you graduate from the college you currently attend. Or he may be putting up a brave front and be trying to think about your wellbeing first. He may feel uncomfortable about you witnessing him decline. Or he may be feeling mixed emotions that are constantly fluctuating according to how he is feeling in any given day.

I would not rush to a decision. Make inquiries about your options with your current school about alternatives, including on-line classes and any accommodations that are available (for example if you have a scholarship and need to take a minimum number of credits). If tuition insurance is offered by your school, you may want to enroll. Spend the summer at home and by July or August, you will have a better sense of your dad’s emotional and physical condition and how quickly it might be changing and how you both are feeling. With that in place, I imagine that your choice will become much clearer to you.

I wish you and your family the best as you move forward.