Ljubica Handjal will need an eye operation early next week. A while ago she was pulling two chicken bones apart, something went amiss, and she hit her eye with her fist. It hurt for a few days, but she did not pay it much attention. Something in the eye got dislodged, though. Her vision is badly impaired, too. “When I close the other eye,” she laughs, “everything looks kind of crumpled.” What is worse, she could lose her sight if the problem is not fixed soon. In her eighty-first year, well past her allotted time in her own mind, she does not appear to be fazed by the turn of events. “It’s got to start somewhere,” she laughs.