History of any kind tends to sprawl, says Bill (Bryson, At Home: A Short History of Private Life, Knopf, New York, 2011) in his discussion of home and privacy. And he comments that history is about ordinary things. Surely both these observations are true of caregiving. It sprawls over time in a variety of ages, for a number of people, different situations from intimate personal care to a social acknowledgement of disabilities and ageingage/ageing. And there is a variety of actions and interactions, mostly in one place: at home, living within a community. The question arises: does informal care continue in a different sense if the cared-for individual is admitted to institutional care? Is there an aspect of caregiving of a major emotional component then?