(On the eve of the first anniversary of my mother’s death at 104, I reprise a blog I wrote days before she died. I hope it will comfort those with similar losses in the past or yet to come.) “I remind you, your parent isn’t actively dying.” The woman in charge of the assisted

I met a friend for coffee at a neighborhood shop last week. We hadn’t gotten together for some time and I’d missed our chats. The minute she walked through the door I could see the malaise that hung about her. Outwardly, she looked well. Her hair was recently trimmed and she was s