Mattie Boykin, Atlanta

I feel fine. I don't know why (people are moving me around). I guess it gives them more chance to keep me; I don't know. I'd rather get in one place and stay.

Milton: Well, I guess it all started when one of my other sisters was keeping her. And that didn't work at all. And then other people tried to keep her, and it wasn't working for one reason or another, and basically, it just boiled down to us three. We were against putting her in a home. And then the best way we thought was, we'll rotate. But then, well, Larry had her for a year. And that was a lot on him. It started out with 6 of us, and then boiled down to us three.

Gladys: Well, we basically all started when Mama was progressing much better in the hospital, and starting the rehabilitation, and they were saying, "She needs to go in a home," that's basically when we all started getting together, saying, no, she will not go in a home, we could give her the best care that she could ever have. So we all started then, started rotating, right after she got out of the hospital.

Larry: (This has been going on) about 5 years. She had an aneurysm in '96 and that's when it all started. And then leaving the hospital and going into rehabilitation, that's when we knew she would have to be taken care of, and that's what we're been doing ever since. Like they said, we started out with 5 or 6 of us at one time, and eventually everyone went their own ways, till it boiled down to us three. I guess mainly because people just don't want to interrupt their lives. Taking care of her is hard, and you have to rearrange your life basically.

And the other three weren't willing to do that. And the other three of us, it just so happened that we were willing to do it, and had jobs with a little bit of flexibility that we could do it.

Milton: You hear a lot of horror stories. But we thought that no one could take care of our mama better than we could. So for me, you know, it just was not up for discussion for me. As long as her health was where we could take care of her ... if her health deteriorates to a certain point, we may have no choice, but her going to a home won't help her.

Next: A decision from the heart ...