"Hey, mom. Thank you for calling me to wish me Happy Birthday." 

"Ksenechka! Listen to this. I found these old photographs with everyone. Everyone is there, at a big table." 

"Who?" 

"Great grandma's relatives. The sisters, and the aunts, and the uncles. When grandma is lucid, she points out to me who is who." 

"How is she doing?" 

"She is stable, not very good, but stable. There are moments...like tonight, I thought she would die. She stopped talking, and she only looks at me now, and there was such sadness in her eyes. Then the other day I caught her pinching her nostrils. I said, 'What are you doing, mama? Stop it.'"

"Oh no."