He used to navigate the world on his own. The big stuff, anyway. If I was out of town, I could count on a call asking where something was, or how something worked.

Cancer made Mike vulnerable. 

We ditched our landline 11 years ago, but he wanted the security. All incoming calls were spam, which made him angry. We ditched the landline again.

I gradually took over appointments, schedules, routines. He didn’t like being dependent, but needed to be. I still, occasionally, hear him calling for me to help him up, bring his meds, or to just … sit with him.