It happened as I knew it would. The second day into my two-week trip abroad, Mom was moved into a closed Alzheimer’s ward. Despite being with my family, despite all the fun things we did together (visiting Muir Woods, the Golden Gate Bridge, swimming in my brother’s pool, China Town, a full Shabbat of enjoyable guests), those quite moments when I was by myself were the hardest. I tried not to cry in front of my kids. I wasn’t too successful. It didn’t help that Mom was disori

I am profoundly tired. We just celebrated the holiday of Sukkot in a whirlwind, enjoyable, family-oriented 48 hours. There were moments of bright fun and other moments of difficulty. It began on Sunday as we were preparing for the holiday. In addition to the weird and annoying—like finding a dead pigeon on our back porch (really) or having to clean the oven when the chicken dish bubbled over and letting my dough rise a second time because I forgot to add salt—I spent the enti

Imagine a world where reality is suspect. Think Soylent Green, Logan’s Run, The Matrix, Ender’s Game. If you’ve seen any of these sci-fi films, you can visualize the protagonist’s fight to overcome the reality espoused by those in power. Each movie ends cathartically with the protagonist winning his battle to reveal the true reality. Now imagine on a smaller scale an individual who battles against disbelief her whole day, an individual who is told by the very people she loves