Real help expands a person’s world; it gives them more doors they can open, more options they can weigh, more of their own life to live.

Control, however lovingly it is described, however sincerely the controller believes in their own good intentions, always does the opposite.

It narrows.

It closes doors and calls it safety.

It removes choices and calls it protection.

When a family tells me they only want what is best for their aging mother, I ask them a single question.

Is she ending up with more choices, or fewer?

The answer tells me everything, every time.