Someone who has spent a good portion of her life gaining purchase has suddenly been asked to sell something, and she seems to find it slightly beneath her.
We didn't realize that they would be asked to do it again, in 2009 -- we didn't realize that our parents and grandparents, the vestiges of their retirement income suddenly diminished and threatened, would be asked once more to stoically accept hardships they had done nothing to bring upon themselves.
His mother, who loved books so much that when she was asked to name 100 favorites she could only narrow the list to 165, was suddenly veering from being able to do crossword puzzles one moment to being unable to remember what she had just said.