The Hidden Secrets of Growing Old part 2: An Adventure so Exquisite

It’s a cool July morning with the Pacific fog sitting plump as a grey hen on the far hills. I love the way the mist hides us here in the flatlands for awhile, as if we were in a time out of time. When the sun breaks through around noon, I have a phone date with my niece Catherine. It will be 3 p.m. in Rhode Island. Ava’s still at day camp and the baby might be asleep. I tap the number into my cell phone and wait. No answer. Ten minutes later I try again. Someone picks up and I can hear Cat yelling in the background, calling goodbye. Now she’s shouting into the phone, “Hi Auntie Sherry! I’m just finishing my Filipino stick fighting lesson!”

Cat’s my god-daughter, my brother Howard’s second born. At 34, with two kids and her work as an acupuncturist and a terrific husband, she has a life that seems expressible mainly in exclamation marks. Cat is the child of my heart, the girlfriend-daughter I never had. To the amazement of our extended family, she and I tend to see the world pretty much through the same lenses. Our conversations reflect this, generally sluicing through the rush of our lives, washing out the gold along with the assorted detritus along the way. But once in a while, the pace slows down. Like now. Read more »