This article is freely available to all

Abstract

Article Abstract

Because this piece does not have an abstract, we have provided for your benefit the first 3 sentences of the full text.

In 1976, journalist Gail Sheehy1wrote a popular book detailing a series of "passages" in the life of an adult. I have written about retirement, stressing the need for an individual to craft a new adaptation to a major change in life circumstances.2Moving forward3may entail similar adaptational work. When an incapacitating illness puts a clamp on one's usual pleasures, blocks mobility, and restricts activity, it can be said that passage into anew life stage is the patient's task.