1986 Summary

The first entry is in February with the author saying that once she decided to tell her mother's story, she was unable to write when she got home from her visits. She knows her mother is going to die and is panic-stricken because of that. When Annie visits her mother on the 12th of February, her mother is hunched over in the wheelchair, reaching out one arm. The gesture reminds Ernaux of her flamboyant mother's constant reaching out to the world.

When the nurses hand out cake, Annie has to feed her mother because she can only eat very tiny bites. Her mother tells her that she feels safe with her. At each visit, Annie brings some kind of food for her mother, but is sorry her mother is subjected to the degradation of not being able to use her hands to feed her self...