Jean and Howard Schmitt woke up to a routine morning on Sept. 15, 2011, in Plain City, Ohio. “Howard and I got up at the usual time, ate breakfast and did the online jigsaw puzzle, as was our custom,” Jean says. Then Howard, 77, went to the basement to finish his sermon for Sunday. Howard, a longtime pastor, was serving as part-time pastor at South Union Mennonite Church in West Liberty, Ohio. The year before he had celebrated 50 years in ministry …

At a library fair where we were displaying our book, Necessary Conversations Between Adult Children and Their Aging Parents, a woman stopped by our table. She glanced at the book cover, read the table of contents and walked away. Later she returned, spent more time examining the book, and with a pained look on her face muttered under her breath, “I can’t do it,” and left …

The northern Spain sun beat down on Deb Schmidt as she guzzled water and followed her husband, Don, to a roadside café. They lunched there before walking several more hours that day on the Camino de Santiago, a six-week, 500-mile walking pilgrimage. She was grateful to rest her sore knees …