Photo by  Ugne Vasyliute  on  Unsplash "Jennifer! Something is wrong with Linda…” I remember the phone call as if it was yesterday.  I stood in the kitchen, hearing, but not wanting to believe the words.  Words that tore through the plans we’d barely pieced together.  Words that shattered any remaining illusion of our control.  Words that reinforced just how powerless we were...   The Storm Before the Storm Just two weeks before the phone call we learned my mother-in-law, who lived out of town and alone, had suffered a stroke. The next fourteen days were filled with confusion, anxiety, and disbelief as other serious and unexpected medical issues came to light. These new and worrisome findings, in addition to the stroke, required their own prompt attention. As she was a widow, my husband (her only child) shouldered the responsibility of navigating these complex waters with her. And this situation, difficult enough on its own and complicated by its setting in another state, was furt