There was a chill in the air, and we had just made it through the winding queue for the shuttle in Sitka, Alaska, when my dad announced, “I need to use the bathroom.”
We were finally at the front of the line. The shuttle into town was only supposed to take about 10 minutes. I looked at him, looked at the line behind us, and gently tried to convince him he could make it.
Halfway through a weeklong cruise through Alaska with my retired parents, that was the moment it hit me: I had become the parent.
I still call my parents for advice on everything from car repairs to home maintenance to which doctor I should see. But on this trip, I was managing…
