The True Cost of My Mother's "Lucky" Age

Summary

My mother was obsessed with the concept of a "lucky age," an old superstition that added years to your life based on archaic folk math.

When she went to register my eight-year-old brother for his social security number and official birth certificate, she insisted on putting him down as eleven.

I thought it was absurd. Knowing it would cause him endless trouble in the future, I fought her tooth and nail, finally convincing her to only inflate his age by two years instead of three.