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.

“I never expected to be buying a house at this age,” I told Richard.

“Why not?”

“I suppose I thought new beginnings belonged to younger people.”

He smiled.

“The paperwork makes no such distinction.”

After he left, I walked from room to room, deciding where Arthur’s reading chair would go.

I planned a small garden of tomatoes and basil.

I arranged for sturdy handrails and good exterior lighting.