“It’s a great time to get old!” That’s what my husband, Peter, says.

He’s right. And getting old is—as the saying goes—better than the alternative. I was thinking this while waiting for my father to get a pacemaker.

My father had no idea he needed a pacemaker until two days before he got one. They had been monitoring his heart because he was suddenly so tired that he was getting winded going up a fl…