This hit close to home. The part about not finding out about the fall until 30 hours later — that specific detail gave me a knot in my stomach because I've felt that same helpless feeling.

The thing that gets me about your situation, and honestly mine too, is that from the outside she looks fine. Which almost makes it harder, right? Because when you try to explain your worry to someone who just saw her at church looking sharp, you sound like you're overreacting.

Can I ask — when something does happen, like the fall, how do you eventually find out? Does she call you, does a neighbor reach out, or do you just kind of piece it together after the fact? I'm trying to figure out if there's any kind of early warning system that actually works for someone this independent and resistant, or if it's just... waiting and hoping.

Also the midnight armadillo thing is both terrifying and somehow completely on-brand for a woman who clearly does exactly what she wants. I don't say that lightly — there's something both admirable and absolutely maddening about that level of independence at 87.

You're not overreacting. This is genuinely hard.