A few years ago, my friend Joan and I bumped into my husband Peter coming out of a CVS store in Harvard Square just after a Harvard class that we three audited together ended. His mouth was full of candy from a bag he was clutching.

The other day, Peter took his bright red walker to Harvard Square to get some exercise. There weren’t many people around, but he bumped into our friend Joan there and they chatted a bit. Before he got home, she called me to tell me that she had seen Peter. Remembering our encounter with him outside the CVS, I asked her if he was chomping on some candy and she said, “No, both of his hands were holding on to his walker.

A few minutes later, Peter came home. I went to greet him. On the dining room table was a bag of black licorice. He had “forgotten” that licorice has gluten (which I can’t eat) so he had to eat it all himself.