From USATODAY.COM

“Dad, you shouldn’t be driving anymore.”
” I haven’t hit anyone yet!”

“You ran over Mrs. Peabody’s cherry tree.”

“That tree was half dead anyway,” Dad growls. “And so is Mrs. Peabody!”

Are you dreading a conversation like this over the holidays? It’s that time of year when we are confronted with signs of aging in our parents that are not evident in long-distance phone conversations. One friend of mine was shocked to find her father on a ladder stringing Christmas lights despite his heart condition. When she learned he was having chest pains and told him she’d drive him to the hospital, he exploded in rebellion, jumped in his own car and peeled away.

Not long after that Christmas, she got The Call. Her father ran a red light and hit another car. And didn’t remember how it happened.

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