Chast reflects that her mother was highly intelligent; she had a higher IQ than both Chast and her father. Elizabeth loved being in charge and had a temper. In the past, she admitted to Chast that she had once hit her for running away in a store. Chast concluded that must have been why she had always been afraid of her mother. In the months after George’s death, Chast came to realize that all the things that had bothered her about her father were trivial: “The only emotion that remained was one of deep affection and gratitude” (167). Elizabeth slowly started to adjust to being a widow, and Chast began to adapt to managing just her mother’s care. The first few months were particularly tough, especially because Elizabeth blamed the hospice nurses for George’s death.

During the year after George’s death, from the fall of 2007 to the fall of 2008, Elizabeth’s health gradually declined as the chronic diverticulitis worsened, and Chast took her to a gastroenterologist, who strongly recommended a colostomy, warning that she might die of sepsis without it. Chast worried that her mother wouldn’t survive the surgery. Elizabeth decided against it and confided in Chast that she felt she was losing her mental activity.