parents of US expats

just curious, are any of you only children and if so, how do you anticpate your parents getting older and how you will care for them if need be?

I'm not an only child, and my brother and his family only live about 4 hours from my mother, but I know I'll be the one "responsible" for her when the time comes and I just plan on applying for her to move here to England.  I'll have citizenship by then, so I'm hoping that will make it easier.

Since going home in June to visit my mother, my husband has been perusing the house sale sites in her area. Seems he is toying with the idea of retiring there (much to my surprise)- an early retirement, if house prices in our area continue to rise! If that be the case, I'll be there to take care of her. Hopefully I'll still have a few years before I have to deal with that (but she has hit 70 so ya never know). I lost my father last year so one less to worry about

I am an only child.

My husband and I are planing on repatriating in the next two years to help take care of my mom who will need a few serious medical procedures. She is still working full time and is two years sort of retirement. So the plan is she retires and we stay with her to help her recover from all the medical work.

After she is recovered we don't know what will happen. We may come back to the UK, or we may stay in the states. My mom has also mentioned she might concider going to england once she is recovered to live out the rest of her years so to speak. The main problem is due to health reason she can not fly. 

So between now and we we go we have a credit card which we don't use. It is just there to pay for any emergency tickets we need to get back to her. If something where to happen we have a small network of firends (both hers and mine) to take care of things if she fell very ill and we were not there.

It really is hard! 

so, has anyone gone through the process of getting a visa for their parent(s)?  i've looked it up and it is possible...you must show they are dependent on you.  my mom claims she'll be independent to the end...but ya never know, she may want to come here after her first visit next week;)