Looking Out My Back Door: Just when I wanted to forget, I remember

Sink? Swim? Tread water? — Jump in the deep end.

I’m not much of a swimmer. Those who tried to teach me gave up. My first husband said if ever I was in trouble in the water, he’d swim the other way for fear I’d drag him under. That episode didn’t raise my confidence.

But I can’t think of a better analogy for what I’ve been doing the last three or four or five years than treading water.

All my life I’ve had a premonition that I would live half of forever, not unrealistic given the history of the women in my family, most of whom lived into their nineties and longer. But l...