Tangier, Morocco, at the northernmost tip of Africa at the intersection of the Mediterranean and Atlantic, just miles from the coasts of Gibraltar and Spain, is thought to be among the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The city, long a magnet for artis...

Beginning in 2013, I began to spend extended periods of time in Southern California as my parents, who had retired to Pasadena, began to experience the sort of health scares all too common to octogenarians. Both, at separate times, had been in and out of the hospital....