It is as if she is stuck on the railroad tracks, her seatbelt jammed, and she can't get out of the car. A train is coming, but your mother's train is weeks or months from impact. Instead of life passing before her eyes in an instant, she has time to dissect everything she did, or failed to do, in life. You and your mother are up against the absolute, up against how precious life is. She is still alive, still reaching for love and happiness, those things which are so important when the end is in sight.
Conversations begin and end.
We begin school and we leave school. We start friendships, we end friendships. We get jobs and leave jobs. We sit down for breakfast, and before we know it, it is time for lunch. We are constantly going from beginning to beginning, from ending to ending.