Later, we pieced together what happened. Around 11 p.m. the night before, she told my dad she thought she was having a stroke. He was lucid enough to understand something was wrong — but not lucid enough to act. His dementia had progressed further than we wanted to admit. Twelve hours later, neighbors found him wandering outside with the phone and the phone book, trying to call 911. He hadn’t managed to. They went inside and found my mom. But here’s the part that undoes me. S