I'm 65 and caring for my 87-year-old mom with dementia. Going to work is sometimes my only break.

Angela Davis, 65, cares for her 87-year-old mom with dementia.

Camille Farrah Lenain for BI This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Angela Davis, 65, who lives in New Orleans with her 87-year-old mom with dementia .

She said her mom's at-home care is upward of $7,000 a month.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

My mom and dad were never married.

I grew up in New Orleans and went to an all-girls Catholic high school.

My mom was a school teacher and bought a house in her 30s, which I recently transferred to my son.

My dad was a math teacher, but left that to help his dad run a furniture moving business.

I went to Fisk University and moved to Texas, then Connecticut.

I did my clinical fellowship at Yale University and had a son.

I moved back to New Orleans because I didn't want my grandparents and parents to be strangers to him.

I worked as a licensed clinical social worker in schools before retiring.

I've also earned income from real estate , as I own over a dozen rental homes.

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