The estimated market value of unpaid care to family and friends last year was $375 billion, according to AARP.

The average national cost of a private nursing home room inched up 2.2% this year, rising to $76,460 (or $209 per day), according to the latest annual survey results from Genworth Financial. The average cost of a one-room assisted living unit, meanwhile, jumped 11%, to $36,090.

For three weeks, spanning August and September, much of the national nursing home community was glued to goings-on in a place they had never heard of before: St. Francisville, LA. Or at least they should have been.