[post] I would walk to the community center every Tuesday and ask the city...

I would walk to the community center every Tuesday and ask the city worker in charge of elderly services why they only count us when we're already dead. I'd sit with the other women in the back row, the ones who nod but don’t speak, and read them poetry from the ones who didn’t make it to spring. Autonomy isn’t a gadget or an app—it’s being able to die in your own apartment with the windows open and someone still knowing your name. I’d start a list: people to check on, trees to water, letters to write before the ink dries. My daughter would worry, but she already does. The real kindness is letting her.