The neurologist showed me four obvious spots where my mother had experienced strokes. He explained that she had small vessel disease and that it was likely the cause of her cognitive decline.

What matters is creating small moments that help you reconnect—after disagreements, during busy seasons, while you're apart, and through all the ordinary days in between.

One day she admitted she had gotten lost driving home from the pet store. A trip that should have taken minutes turned into nearly two hours of driving around a town she had lived in for more than thirty years.

The last thing I wanted was for my mother to see me cry. I usually tried to hide my emotions because when I was upset, she often became upset too.

It was as though different versions of time moved in and out around her constantly, overlapping one another without warning.