Beth is only 16 or 17 on The Walking Dead but she is wise beyond her years. Although she might be royally messed up emotionally and mentally at this point, she has quotes in the show that hit home whether you are in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, raising children, taking care of ailing parents or dealing with everyday work and life issues.

In the first half of season 4 several members of the prison group become sick and are quarantined. Beth’s father Hershel goes into the quarantined area to help the ill. Beth’s sister Maggie asks her if she knows where their dad is. Beth, who is in charge of watching all the kids, says “We don’t get to be upset. We all have our jobs to do.” She makes statements along these same lines throughout the season.

Funny enough, this quote went through my mind a lot over the last two weeks. My mother has been very ill and in the hospital for nearly two weeks. I have an older brother, younger brother, two sister-in-laws, my dad, my kids and two nephews and two nieces. We are lucky to have a close-knit family.

I realized through the last two weeks that we do all have our jobs to do when a crisis arrives in the family. My job is to take care of things – organizer, fact gatherer, caregiver. I questioned the doctor and nurses often making sure my mom had the care she needed. I also assessed what needed to be done to prepare my mom’s house for her return. We realized that my parents’ dogs would have to find a new home before she came home from the hospital so I found a rescue to take the mastiffs.

My younger brother’s job in the family is to get things done. Once the dogs were removed, we had to remove all dog hair from the home. My younger brother immediately took the lead to pull carpeting out of the home, replace flooring and paint my parent’s bedroom.

My older brother’s job is to keep my dad calm and help with whatever needs to be done. Believe me, keeping my dad calm is a BIG job (love you daddy).

5-year-old nephew cleaning my mom’s

My sister-in-laws, nieces, nephews, my children and Nick worked their butts off to help us get the house ready and supported us through the tough time. Support was their job.

And although I definitely got upset during my mother’s 12 day stay at the hospital, I never did in front of her. I knew I had to be strong for her and do my job. Beth is right, “We don’t get to be upset. We all have jobs to do.”

What is your role or job in your family?