Your post is excellant. I am sorry you had to go through all that and it must have been awful for your mother.
Sometimes life teaches us hard lessons, and it sounds like you are a very compassionate person and your mom is very lucky to have you. It also sounds like your mother is a very strong person.
Thank you for your nice words. I’m afraid, though, that I don’t deserve the compliments. My mother and my relationship has been strained for years, and her lack of touch with reality has only made it worse. She was likely a nice person before she spent years with my father, but she hasn’t been that person for 30+ years. Only one of her sisters, one of the most patient people on the planet, still keeps in touch with her.