My mother, Evelyn Bernstein, is 89 years old. After a hip fracture in 2009, my family moved her from San Diego to Los Angeles, to be closer to us. We began to notice cognitive changes, which have increased to a state of substantial memory loss, delusional thinking, and disorientation. My mother was not only bright and articulate, she had the sharpest memory of anyone we knew. I am a psychologist in private practice, and I teach medical students, but nothing in my training or years of experience have prepared me for confronting what is known as an "ambiguous loss" of a loved one.
