Even as disease strips a woman piece by piece, a deeply familiar card game brings her briefly back.

Lily Zhu

August 6, 2026 — 7:00pm

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“Mum?”

Her eyes are closed on the screen.

“Mum, can you nod if you can hear me?”

She nods. Then her face goes still. The video call feels like looking at a photograph. My mother was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease nine years ago, though the tremor had been there long before.

“This runs in the family,” she used to say whenever we suggested she see a doctor. “My grandmother’s hands shook – she lived to 90. My…

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