I found this essay to be very insightful and moving. Yes, it is equally sad to see our parents age before our eyes and to know our children are experiencing this same realization about us. I identified with so much you mentioned here, having experienced many of the same situations with my mother. As human beings, we are perhaps unique among other creatures in having this capacity to live in the past, present, and future, nearly simultaneously. This awareness sometimes feels like a gift making us feel a conscious connection to our lives and to our various experiences and to those we love; but sometimes the awareness of the inevitability of aging and of loss is almost unendurably sad. Thank you for writing of these life changes so honestly.