The strange grief of seeing our parents age

The strange grief of seeing our parents age

It was an ordinary night, like countless others before it. I went to bed expecting nothing more than another routine morning. But before dawn, a knock on my bedroom door pulled me from a deep sleep. In the haze between sleep and wakefulness, I heard my mother calling my name. My first instinct was almost embarrassingly mundane.

"Did I miss my alarm?" I mumbled. "Is it seven already?"

"No," she replied.