郭強生在《何不認真來悲傷》及鍾文音的《捨不得不見妳》中，藉由書寫照護老病父母，回溯家族創傷和成長記憶，過程中不斷發問，提出各種照護老病者的問題，主要圍繞著家族成員間為何總面臨溝通破裂之處境，甚至檢視當前大眾媒體對老年議題若非「老年典範」就是「老人問題」的兩極化操作，面對諸種「老」問題，郭強生常在描述家族言語衝突事件後提出一敒串問題，看似提問，實則試圖跳脫散文寫作者「我」的主觀感受，代替不同角色揣想及對話。鍾文音則將母親的「失語」象徵化，重新為其過往傷害性言語注入正面價值，試圖將老病問題作文學性轉化。正因意識到時間在考量「老」問題被忽略的可能，郭強生和鍾文音藉由整理舊照回溯長者的青春歲月，試圖從長者所經歷的時代變動和艱難處境，理解他們的失語、失智和負面溝通慣性等「老」問題，將他們從備受社會注目的角色中抽離，注視長者之前的艱苦人生。除了回溯，作家也從照護經驗推及未來老後的居家空間，鍾文音將老病身體從私領域推展至公共視野，辯證性地將醫療空間對比於天涯行旅；郭強生則以為理想中的「老地方」應由老收藏所建構，充分展現其老者關懷。

In Kuo John Sheng’s “Why not sadden for real,” and Chung Wen-yin’s “Can’t Give Up Seeing You,” both writers reflect back on family traumas and childhood experiences by writing on their own experiences to care for elderly parents. They inquire why family members always face communication breakdown regarding elder care, and question mass media’s polarizing portraits of either “Model Elders” or “Problem Elders.” Through raising questions based on family conflicts, Kuo attempts to depart from the “self” perspective of the essay writer and triesto speak and dialog on behalf for alternative roles. Chung on the other hand, symbolizes her mother’s “speech loss” process and injects positive meaning to hurtful languages, to transform elder issues literally and re-open the possibilities for dialogs. Besides, regarding on the issue of “time”, Kuo and Chung in their writings both utilize photos as the materials to make the phonamona of speech loss, memory loss and negative communications surrounging “old issues” sophisiticated. By extracting the elders from usual societal inspections and pressures and leaving the “self” perspective behind, both writers try to observe the difficult life journeys the elders have experienced. . Chung pushes the hidden elder body from private to public space, and makes dialectical analogies between the rotting medical care facilities with the refreshing traveling spaces. Kuo imagines how an ideal space should be filled and formed with time-valued collectables. In light of the elder care issues, both writers reflect with temporal and spatial writings, demonstrating their ultimate concerns for the elders.