Driving out of San Francisco on another weeknight, after another afterwork visit with my auntie, who’s transitioning to assisted living after a fall,

She seems to be stable, if slowly accepting of this inevitable change,

Silver linings from this “disaster” as she calls it,

I’ve visited SF more than a dozen times these last three months, I’ve always loved the city, familiar thanks to my aunt’s near fifty years there,

And my niece has taken up college senior year residence at auntie’s house, a great blessing for her to finish out her college experience,

And as I drove out of SF and raced southbound on the highway, a little too fast maybe to get home though the evening darkness and shadows of the Bay Area foothills,

It occurred to me that we’re doing all right, all things a considered, strangely grateful for the coping.