This piece by Dan Collison is an update on a three-part series he produced with his mother, Peg Collison, in 2000, on her move into a retirement facility. That earlier move marked an important step into Ms. Collison's last phase of life, but she made it in a spirit of optimism. This time, things aren't going well. Since 2000, Peg's partner has died and she's battled breast cancer, depression, the debilitating failure of her knee and back, and the onset of dementia. Now she's had to move from her assisted-living apartment into the skilled-nursing facility.

This is dicey business for her son, Dan, considering the risk of exploitation inherent in documentary work--a risk with heightened stakes when documenting one's family member. Peg's radio-producer son has come halfway across the country for his first visit in six months, at a hard time for her, and he's walked in with his recorder rolling. "Take it away," she tells him at one point. Dan tells the listener that his mom talks more openly off tape.

It's a squirm-inducing moment, but, intentionally or not, it serves to strengthen a lesson of the piece: that those of us who plan to grow old won't get to write the script for our last years. Chances are we'll endure a not-so-dignified decline.