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.

On the day of the visit, Helen came by to help me unpack the kitchen.

Lucas entered first with the cautious expression of someone who had heard two versions of a story and wasn’t sure which to believe.

Sophie raced toward the back room, delighted by the sunlit windows.

We made sugar cookies.

Lucas tried to pretend he was too old to enjoy decorating them, then spent fifteen minutes building a frosting design of a soccer field.

Later he asked, “Did you really win the lottery?”