It was near the end for him so she didn't venture far. It's a notebook she bought and showed Luke to prove to him that she was taking his assignments seriously - a bright yellow college ruled spiral bound notebook, which was all she could find at the Thrifty Market there close to Luke's house. She has to do an official one to turn over to the nurse who oversees her work, but this is a different, personal notebook she writes just after someone has died. She always ends with one of her very favorites like 'It Could Happen to You' or 'Over the Rainbow' or 'What'll I Do?' Joanna - as ordered by Luke's many rules - keeps a notebook with an entry on each of the people she sits with. Joanna has watched the daughter night after night, leaning into her mother's ear to sing - first upbeat (clang clang clang went the trolley, ding ding ding went the bell).

Now she has forgotten everything except the face of her daughter, random lyrics and that your shoes and purse should always match. She loved anything Irving Berlin had ever written. 'It's why turquoise looks so good on me.' She loved to sing and some nights she could convince several people to join in other nights she simply stood in one corner and swayed back and forth like she might have been in Las Vegas singing everything she knew of Doris Day and Rosemary Clooney and Judy Garland. She told Joanna that having your colors done was one of the best investments a woman could ever make. She had her color chart done in 1981 and kept the little swatches like paint chips in the zippered section of her purse.

She was a woman who kept her hair dyed black and never left her room without her hair and make-up and outfit just right. Only months ago, this woman - Lois Flowers - was one of the regulars in Pine Haven's dining room where the residents often linger long after the meal for some form of entertainment or another.

Now Joanna is holding the hand of someone waiting for her daughter to arrive.

Life after life book club questions