WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (AP) — Marnie Schwartz was in California, a lawyer raising two toddlers. She was in no position to move across the country to care for her mother, who was living alone in New York and whose health was beginning to decline.

Schwartz’s dilemma was similar to that faced by more and more Americans as the population spreads out, people live longer and giving up a job is out of the question.