A few months after her 90th birthday, my grandmother, Betty Madden-Work, spent a week in the hospital and then moved into a nursing home, where aides helped her dress each morning and a physical therapist cheerfully forced her to exercise. As I sat next to her bed while she napped in the afternoons, I thought about Grandma and the regular childhood visits my sister and I made to see her, including two weeks we spent with her each summer in Springfield, Ill. We'd go swimming at the community pool, check out books at the public library, take trips to historic sites, ... (more)