This blog, written by Steven Syre, originally appeared on the Geronotology Institute blog.

Increasing longevity has given rise to a new phenomenon that was once considered rare: generations of family members reaching old age together.

Senior children and very old parents are not so unusual anymore. “And virtually nothing is known about the relationships of very old adults and their ‘old’ children,” said Kathrin Boerner, associate professor of gerontology at UMass Boston’s McCormack Graduate School.

Boerner recently received a $419,855 grant from the National Institute on Aging to study the relationships of parents older than 95 with a child older than 65. Her work will examine the relationships of 120 such parent-child pairs. Read more.