I watched my grandmother, clearly the matriarch of our family, have a stroke a few months after my grandfather died, and then slowly lose her faculties and become totally dependent on my aunt for care. She “lived”-and I use the word advisedly-for almost a decade. She died over 50 years ago, but I remember that time well. I pray your mother and you are spared that fate. I truly sympathize. You and she are in my thoughts and prayers.