I dread my kids getting sick–and not just because I hate to see them suffer. So much for empathy, right?

Our latest cavalcade of illnesses–recurrent ear infections, nasty colds, and a violent stomach virus–coincided with the wrapping-up of the series Downton Abbey. And don’t think for a second that the deep cosmic significance of that timing is lost on me. I’ve been a fan of the show since summer of 2011, when I tuned in via Netflix from the couch and fought off waves of morning (and afternoon, and evening) sickness by escaping to early-20th century England. I gasped at the machinations of Thomas and O’Brien, rued the endless personal toll of the Titanic’s sinking, teared up at Mr. Bates’s leg trouble, and guffawed at Violet’s unfailing zingers.

Read the rest over at Mockingbird!