My mother nearly died and then bounced back.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29748259

While my mother was still aphasic, I was exploring ways to communicate with her and then it occurred to me that she was literate and numerate. At the time, I began writing questions with possible answer choices on a scratch paper and had her read them and select the answer she wanted by tapping her fingers on it. This is how I got to know how she was feeling, what she wanted for a breakfast etc. By the way, she is a technophobe.