“That will be a big mistake.” The concern in my wife’s voice over the Bluetooth in my car was palpable. I had just informed her that I planned to take the scenic route home from Maine. You see, Sally is a self-proclaimed traffic expert.

Trust your heart. That’s the advice of Katy Butler, best-selling author of The Art of Dying Well, and strong believer in how acknowledging mortality can help improve our lives, and deaths.

As I prepare to interview season 18’s Project Runway contestant Nancy Volpe Beringer, I’m hemming my daughter’s mall-purchased formal dress. It’s a connecting thread as Volpe Beringer creates runway-ready garments requiring far more than hems. There is a larger tie as we have watched Project Runway from its beginning. I think back to a 2010 mall fashion show narrated by early host and sometimes-mentor, Tim Gunn. He asks my then-five-year-old daughter to audition for Project Runway, Jr. Our souvenir picture features silver-haired Gunn on his knees next to my beaming kindergartener.

On a frigid night with the wind whipping all around, I’m standing on an icy sidewalk more than 400 miles from home. The line of people snaking ahead of me is long, there doesn’t seem to be much forward movement and why I didn’t remember to pack my gloves I’ll never know. Whose idea was this anyway?

Late one morning last May, I idly perused “Dining in Bermuda” websites in anticipation of the brief vacation my husband and I had planned where we would enjoy crystal clears waters on pink sand beaches. Just two weeks earlier, Steve and I had completed our move from our beloved nearly 300-year-old farmhouse an hour outside of Boston to a modern two-bedroom apartment 5 miles from the city.