LANSING, MI—Saying the extra travel made the get-togethers that much more stressful, local woman Laura Holmes, 51, told reporters Monday she was fed up with having to go back and forth between her divorced parents’ nursing homes during the holidays. “It’s just such a hassle to drive all the way down to Dad’s nursing home on Thanksgiving morning, then have to head halfway across the state to Mom’s assisted-living place just a few hours later,” said Holmes, who added that she probably spent more time in the car last Thursday than she did sitting down and eating individually packaged turkey meals with her parents in their respective cafeterias. “I showed up at Dad’s, said a quick hello to the other residents at the Thanksgiving party in their activity room, and maybe talked with him for a half hour about his knees and his kidney issues before I had to leave. Then I hopped back in the car and drove two and a half hours north to do the same exact thing with Mom—it’s too much. I brought up the idea of spending Thanksgiving at just one of their nursing homes next year, but their aides told me how much it meant to both of them that I came, so I decided to drop it. God, I can’t believe I have to do this all over again in a month.” Holmes said she was extremely jealous of her friends whose parents had never divorced and only had to visit one nursing home or cemetery plot during the holidays.

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