As a Welderly, I live my life amongst a wide spectrum of ages, from grandchildren to adult children to my peers. I find the years going by with increasing speed, and sometimes I feel that I’m being left behind by family members. It’s very confusing because I don’t want them hovering over me and treating me like a helpless older woman. At the same time, I feel despondent when I don’t get a phone call or when communication seems perfunctory. My children are all good people with families and jobs and lots of responsibilities, and I’ve always been independent. We’re doing a delicate dance at this point, neither of us sure who should be leading and probably not even understanding the way to dance because we don’t know what kind of music each has in his or her head. We also don’t know what kind of moves the other can do. I often feel that people are haphazardly bumping into the ladder where I’m precariously teetering on the top rung, hoping they don’t see that I’m scared.