humlan and yonuh, I definitely feel that sense of guilt that you both feel....or maybe it's a sense of dread...always worrying about everybody...I have developed such an aversion to the telephone...After my Mother died my Dad would call me 10 or more times every day...I was afraid not to answer his calls for fear that he had fallen or was in trouble of some kind...and this was not paranoia because after she died he was in 5 car accidents and lost his car keys 16 times...when we moved him to Assisted Living he would call me every hour on the hour all through the night...it was a living hell...at that point my husband discontinued our land line phone and we used our cell phones...because we knew there was staff to help him if he was in trouble....but to this day I hate the phone..and of course I feel guilty about it...my girlfriends complain that they have to email me or call my husband if they are desperate to reach me...but I can never find my cell phone..my kids say "Mom there is a method to your madness..you are hiding from bad news" but I spend all my time feeling guilty about that too...

It probably all reverts back to my Catholic upbringing...