Mathilde is getting on in age, and she’s forgetting all sorts of things. So her daughter decides she’d be better off in assisted living than at home. Arriving in that new world, Mathilde starts a diary, A Life and Change.

She uses it to commits old memories o paper: her war-torn childhood, losing her father, fleeing to the free zone, losing her mother, being hidden by a farming family. Returning home to find everything in ruins.

But she also describes her daily life in the strange world of assisted living. Her roommate who has lost her mind; her colorful and fairly life-battered tablemates; the care-givers – especially Maryline, who is a ray of sunshine. The days slip by: some are good, others, bad. It is a time for taking stock and for adjusting to a radical kind of solitude.

Daily life in an assisted-living facility, described with tenderness and insight by one of the residents. A magnificent, multifaceted portrait of several women.