answer:Mine died almost a year ago when she was about 96.5. My sister (10 years younger) thought that she was going to bury us; the last four years of her life were sad and droopy. She had senile dementia and aching joints and little joy but soldiered on in her own apartment in an Independent living facility with some day care and lots of attention from my sister, bro-in-law and me. We did all her bookkeeping, taxes, shopping, docs’ appointment and general factotum jobs. Until then she had a very good run; 45 years with my father and then over 20 with a boyfriend. They traveled and bopped around until he ran out of steam at 92. For a while it felt as though I had been fired from a job. Now, almost at the year anniversary marker, I am the oldest living member of my generation of the family. She stopped being a mother years ago and recently my joints have started to ache.