My name is Timothy Reikert. You see things other people don't. My mother used to say to

me. And those were the words I used as inspiration all my life as I strove to become a film director.

But after getting hammered by critics after my first feature and ruining my second with

my own ego, I bottomed out in Hollywood 30 years ago directing episodes for a niche syndicated

series no one had any respect for. And within five years of feeling on top of the world,

I felt like I was at the bottom again, saddled with debt, a drinking habit, and a fondness

for a new narcotic the showbiz types called Tangerine. In the spring of 1988, my economic

circumstances pretty much decided that my mother had to move into a senior care facility

instead of living on her own with a nurse. She moved into a place called Waverly News

up near Berkeley, that July. It happened with the worst possible timing. The shooting of

the last three episodes of the series had to be done almost simultaneously because of

a technician strike. And that meant I was working 18 hour days when mom went in. Nervous,

alone, and uncertain about our future. I apologized again and again to her primary care doctor

for not being able to get away. More union problems stretched things out and I missed her second

week at Waverly News 2. Her neighbor and longtime friend, who we'd always called Miss Jeanie,

laid into me pretty hard over the phone. The worst news was that mom's signs of dementia

had, according to her, seemed to worsen overnight when she moved in, most likely because of the stress.

I absolutely could not break away from the day-in series for a flight north. Day after day,

we kept pressing to finish shooting and every day something delayed us.

Miss Jeanie called me on my mother's 14th day in the home and I got a report about her new

symptoms. Mostly it was predictable little things. For example, the home brought in a dog on

Fridays, a golden retriever, just for a few hours of companionship in the day room.

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