However many years a man may live, let him enjoy them all. But let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. Everything to come is meaningless. (Ecclesiastes 11:8)

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Toward the end of Meg Federico's memoir of caring for her elderly mother, Addie, and her mother's equally aged second husband, Walter, the author records an unexpected tender moment. "Tell me," says the dying Addie, who has lost the ability to walk unaided, to sip a cocktail freely or even to change her clothes: "How I can live when I can't do a thing?" Ms. Federico has no ready answer: "What could I say? How does one live when the end of life is in sight, but hasn't yet arrived?"