The year began with frequent panicked calls, multiple falls and nightmarish nights in the ER until my 95-year-old mother mercifully passed away on April 30^th. With spring came news of the end of my daughter’s marriage and the loss of a son-in-law. Underlying all this, the steep decline of my husband’s health to the point of immobility. Then October 7^th happened and the world seemed to finally collapse. Even the launch of my novel, an accomplishment, seemed like a loss – no more intimate early morning hours spent with my protagonist. Queen Elizabeth’s got nothing on me. 2024 can’t come soon enough.