Aging is hard, but watching those you love get older isn’t much easier.

What do you do when the people you love are declining right in front of your eyes? What can you do but rage at all that is cruel, laugh at all that is absurd, and show up for whatever happens next?

Mira Cayne’s father has been in physical decline for decades, ever since his spinal cord injury at the age of forty-four. He was never the dad who ran a marathon, but he was the strongest and most resilient man Mira knew. Now, at seventy-nine, Matt Frank is recovering from his second surgery, and Mira can see a change in him. The compounding effects of old age and his infirmity are taking a toll on his fighting spirit, and Mira is trying to be strong for them both. She isn’t sure she is up to the task.

As Matt heals, his fragile condition produces daily indignities that offer the father and daughter a choice: to laugh or to cry. Luckily for Mira, she is built just like her father, and there is no doubt which choice they will make.

But everything isn’t funny. Mae, Matt’s nanny since childhood and Mira’s as well, is dying. She has been in the family for more than seventy years. Mae Boyd is their history and their memory, and they love her. Who will they be when she is gone?

Mira clings to strength and inspiration wherever she can find them: Mae’s Bible, her friends’ courage, her father’s iron will, and her daughter’s smile. She grapples with faith—her own lapsed Jewish commitment and Mae’s unyielding Christian belief. She fights her fears and confronts her rage, all while navigating the challenges of shifting family relationships.