The remote door opener clicks under my thumb. From my parked car across the tidy suburban street, I watch the two-car garage door lurch upward and begin to glide open. The accumulation of medical equipment and old resentments ends today. The final clear-out begins. My mother-in-law still owns the house....

Television ads for investment firms and insurance companies are scary. Accidents jump out of closets, poor planning slithers under our sheets, and retirement is clomping up the basement steps to get us. Explicit images of a youthful retiree surfing with his grandson at the beach house, graduation ceremonies...