My family lost its shared reality. But some ties still bind.
By Beth Macy
Ms. Macy is the author of âDopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America
.â
The author with her mother in a memory care unit in 2019.Credit.Tom Landon
XENIA, OHIO â My 93-year-old mother was dying. It was the Saturday after the election, and the suburban Georgia votes were being tallied. My sister Cookie and I were sitting in Momâs memory-care unit, the lights dimmed. About the only thing Cookie and I agreed on politically was not to discuss the orange elephant in the room.