Either my sister Karen or I tried to be there when our parents were trying out a new aide.  We wanted to describe our expectations for the job, to show them where things were located in the house, to explain how our mom liked things done and, most importantly, to establish a relationship with them.  It was vital that we made them see that, though our mom might be stressed and our dad might be very sick, these two people were someone’s parents.  We wanted to humanize a situation that might otherwise be just another business arrangement.