My mother taught me how to fold her headscarves before she forgot how

Dear Delyara, Mum wore headscarves her entire adult life and folded them in a precise way before putting them into the drawer. I never paid attention. They were simply there, stacked perfectly. Dementia has changed her movements. She can still dress herself most mornings, but today she stared at a scarf and could not remember what to do with it. I sat beside her and asked her to show me. Her hands began automatically. Fold corner to corner, smooth the edge, fold again. Halfway through, she stopped. I copied what she had done and finished it. She looked at my fold and immediately corrected me. “Too thick.” I nearly cried from relief. There she was. For ten minutes, we folded every scarf in the drawer. By the final one, I was doing most of it and she was watching. I wish I had learned years ago when she could have complained properly about my technique. Tonight, I practiced on one of my own scarves. It still comes out too thick.