The cafeteria area in the memory care section of an assisted living facility.

NURSE, a 40-year-old female, sits at a table away from the rest of the Memory Care residents. She has come to do a physical and cognitive assessment to determine if MOTHER qualifies for reimbursement from her long-term care policy. Across from her, DAUGHTER sits in a chair, while MOTHER sits next to her in a wheelchair, her purse in her lap. She is searching for something, turning the purse over and over in her hands. DAUGHTER is nervous, fidgeting. She’s known for nine years that MOTHER would one day need care, but now that the move has finally taken place, she worries how MOTHER will react to the assessment. MOTHER has been in Memory Care for a month. She’s been known to lash out when agitated.

 

NURSE          Can you tell me your birthday?

MOTHER       What is today?

NURSE           April 22nd.

MOTHER       Today is my birthday.

NURSE           Is it?

DAUGHTER   No, it’s February 6, 1939.

MOTHER        Who told you that?

DAUGHTER    You did.

NURSE             Do you know what year it is?

MOTHER         19 . . . Um, 19 . . . I just don’t remember.

NURSE             That’s ok, do you know what state you’re in?

DAUGHTER      I was just in Illinois visiting Marissa, so now I’m in our state . . .

MOTHER           (Continues to search her purse) . . .

NURSE               Can you tell me what city you’re in?

MOTHER            (Continues to search her purse) . . .

NURSE                Can you tell me who you have with you today?

MOTHER            (Continues to search her purse) . . . NURSE and DAUGHTER exchange a look

DAUGHTER        I’m sorry . . .

 

Fade to black

 

DAUGHTER (in voice over) My mother would be mortified to know that she failed a test. Mom has always been competitive, whether it was striving for valedictorian during high school or trying to use all of her letters in a tense game of Scrabble. If there were ever an assessment to fail, it’s this one required by the insurance company to make sure she qualifies for care. Mom finishes the test in half the time, slumped in a borrowed wheelchair, rifling through her empty purse.

Today, she doesn’t know me. Today, it’s a blessing.

 

Lynn Aprill

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Lynn Aprill is a retired educator and MFA student at Lindenwood University in St. Charles, Missouri. Her work has appeared recently in Copperfield Review Quarterly, Sky Island Journal, Willows Wept Review, among others. Her latest chapbook Aging in Place was published by Water’s Edge Press in April 2025.