Brakes failed today. Very scary!

I was with DD on my way to pick up some legal docs from my lawyer re: my mom's death. I applied the brakes (husband's car, a 1999 Audi) and they felt sluggish and not as responsive as usual. But the car did stop. At the stop light, I looked around for where I could safely pull over in case the brakes did fail, and sure enough, they did. Thankfully I kept my wits about me and it was good that I had "preplanned" what I was going to do. I had to cross on-coming traffic because of the lane I was in and how many cars there were, but we safely pulled into a parking lot. I was very, very shaken up but called DH, AAA, etc. Thank God this didn't happen on one of summer road trips on winding mountain roads, or the freeway...