My daughter-in-law laughed as she gave me a $2 scratch-off for my 73rd birthday. Ten months later, my own son shoved a senior living brochure in front of me and said, “We already picked your room.” They thought I was too old to fight back. They had no idea what I had been hiding.

“Because I wanted to know how you’d treat me if you thought I had nothing.”

PART 4

Jessica recovered first.

She always did.

Her face changed from disbelief to calculation, like a person turning a page to find a more advantageous argument.

“Margaret,” she said, “we were trying to do the responsible thing.

You have to understand that.”

“By choosing a room for me without asking whether I wanted to go?”