This just happened last week and my apologies in advance for any typos or grammar I punched this out on my phone and had to retype the second half :-/
My [38M] wife [40F] has a chronic illness and at times is bed ridden and requires additional care. We have 3 small children so I’m often my wife’s caregiver and a single parent. We live a flight away from my wife’s childhood best friend so we only see her once a year at best. Let’s call her Sharon. Sharon is like a second mom to the kids and has known me since I was 18. We are very close and when she heard my wife was in bed again she put her life on hold and booked a ticket on a flight to stay with us for a month. I’m pretty capable of taking care of the family but I certainly wasn’t going to turn down help with a big deadline for work on the horizon.