Grandma's 72 and still working to support her children — and theirs

Joann Ernst has played a "motherly" role in her grandchildren's lives.

Roy de la Cruz for BI Joann Ernst, 72, shook her head as her older grandson decapitated an action figure.

The other laid out puzzle pieces in a line, surrounded by a sea of toys.

"You have to put all the Play-Doh back in the container so it doesn't dry out," Ernst called out to the 5- and 7-year olds.

Ernst is not the boys' legal guardian .

She's spent the past two years living with her son Jack, helping with her grandsons on weekends.

Jack had struggled to work after losing an arm in an accident, so Ernst took a job in the special education department of a local school, paid his rent, and spent weekends shopping for the boys and disciplining them "as a mother would." Joann watches on as her son, Jack, helps the boys with their technology.

Roy de la Cruz for BI ^several photo captions refer to her as Joann, not Ernst In June, she moved back to Oregon from Connecticut.

She needed to help her daughter, Joanna, with her children in the same way she's been helping Jack and his boys.

"I wish I could just be a grandmother, but I also discipline, school them, feed them, and provide a home for them," Ernst said.

"I enjoy it immensely, but I'm unable to retire, and my retirement money is slowly being spent." For some grandparents, helping adult children through illness, job loss, addiction, or other crises means taking on far more than occasional babysitting.

They become the family's financial and practical backstop, spending down savings, delaying retirement , or going back to work to help support both adult children and grandchildren.

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