Living in the middle

Life is not always as it seems | Andrée Seu

Ali Douglass for WORLD

In 2003 I had a new roof put on, and the roofer was careless with the flashings. Now I have never seen a "flashing" (Is that like saying I have never tasted a "grit"?), but I have it on good authority that the neglect of same is what caused, several years later, the collapse of my attic ceiling.

It started small (though by one's late 50s there is no excuse for ignorance of the trajectory of small beginnings—the first white hair, the first age spot, the freckle of mold in the basement wall). I make infrequent trips to the third floor, and one day I spotted a slight bulge overhead that was not there before. I ignored it and over time a bulge became plaster dust on the floor, and then a cascade.