If your parents reach a certain age—and it’s a different age for everyone—the question “How are you?” adopts changed meaning. You’re no longer asking about their day, necessarily, but more like, “How’s that hip you had replaced two years ago? Did you sleep okay last night? Are you still on those god awful blood pressure meds? What about that reimbursement check from insurance, did it arrive yet?” Stuff like that. Medical stuff. Whether they’re in good health. If they’re being smart in today’s “gimme gimme gimme” world.

Over time, a question once reserved for small talk and pleasantries grows to become loaded.

Then you remember what it was like as a kid, if you watched your parents watch their parents age. How your grandparents seemed more frail each time you saw them, more delicate, susceptible. To everything out there, really, from slipping on ice to opening virus-laced emails.

Then you realize that through the eyes of lineage, oh right, you’re next.