Upcoming in our "Promise to Our Parents" series:

Part II, Oct. 7

Finances: Whether in your home or a care facility, caring for an aging parent can be a devastating financial burden for most working people. We'll examine problems and solutions to affording all levels of long-term care. We'll look at the importance of open communication about finances and offer tips on avoiding those who prey on seniors' life savings. In addition, we'll examine how the state and federal governments are responding to age-related expenses such as insurance and costly prescription drugs.

Part III, Oct. 14

Caring for your parents' practical needs: This installment will explore the tough choices adult children and their aging parents need to make about the business of daily living, such as housing, transportation, meals and social activities for parents who can no longer manage alone. We'll include tips on what to do when it's time for your aging parent to stop driving, take a look at hospice care, and talk to aging parents themselves, to get their points of view on how it feels to suddenly need the care of those for whom they have always cared.

Part IV, Oct. 21

Conflicting emotions: When age robs their parents of the ability to live alone, adult children must find a way to care for them as they tackle their often wildly fluctuating emotions. We'll talk to Ventura County residents about the emotions incumbent in caring for their aging parents, and we'll talk to experts about how to cope with emotions that can range from anger to warmth and from love to grief. We'll follow the emotionally wrenching cycle of life, as it inevitably plays out. We'll talk to people who have had a double dose of grief when long-married parents have died within days or weeks of each other, an oft-reported phenomenon. And we'll find out why the large majority of American caregivers are women.

Part V, Oct. 28

The future: Imagine a 24-hour elder-care facility that creates relationships between residents and animals, plants and children. The Eden Alternative is just one of the experimental programs on the elder-care horizon. We'll look at some of the other changes in the works for home care and at a family who is making it work the old-fashioned way, with all of the generations working together and learning from one another. We'll also look at care of parents in some other cultures, most notably the Latino culture, which advocates home care for aging parents. And we'll take a look at legislative changes on the horizon that can help adult children and the parents they love.