The dashboard blinked orange for a month. Calling the tow truck a surprise is fiction.

Most breakdowns announce themselves for a while first. What makes them feel sudden is that each day of ignoring the signal is a small, reasonable decision, and the accumulation never feels like a decision at all. Calling the ending unexpected is how the earlier part stays comfortable.

Name the warning you are sitting with right now. A conversation you have not had, a bill you have not opened, a sound the car started making. Deal with the smallest version this week, and if money is the reason it is being left, at least find out the real number, which is usually less frightening than the guess.