I'm glad that your mother is doing better.
Now might be the best time to try to let the cue loose and learn a different form of pool. Play with slop rules and hit that ball hard. See how many you drop with each shot. You'll soon notice the addictive feeling which shooting uncontrolled powerful shots based entirely on instinct provides you. More than anything, it will give you a feeling of strength and confidence.
After some time of doing that, you can get back to learning how to properly bend down and execute a perfect stroke. I'm saying all this because letting the cue go wild is what helps me get back into the game after a longer pause. It lets me connect with my subconscious, which then allows me to get my feeling for the game back much sooner. I think it could work for you as well.
I kind of like this idea of just hitting balls for awhile and letting your stroke out. It kinds of loosens up your arm and starts to restore the muscle memory.
I'm in a similar situation, not having played much at all for the last three years plus. I may have played an hour or two a half dozen times each year at best. The last time I felt truly in stroke was when I had my last pool hall, which closed in 2005. After that I pretty much took a break from being an active player.
I've gotten out of stroke before, taking long layoffs of months and even years, but have always felt like I could get back in stroke with a week or two of solid play, putting in several days in a row of long hours at the table. This time has not been so easy. I'm over 70 and didn't have a cue that I was comfortable with. I started out looking for a cue that would suit me now and that process took a couple of weeks. I was playing maybe an hour or two several times a week by then. After finding a cue that I liked, I began playing a little more and decided to enter the Banks and One Pocket in Vegas.
Banks has always been my best game and one I have confidence in. I drew Steve Lingelbach in my first match and actually played decently (but not that good) and lost on the hill 4-3. I was worn out after the three hour match and fell flat playing my old friend Harry Platis (who plays good Banks) next. He knocked me out, so I went two and out.
After a day off I played in the One Pocket and began to feel a little better in my match against Shane. I actually had him 6-2 in the second game but folded like a cheap suit when I realized I had a chance to win the game. I did get to six in one other game but that was my highlight of a 4-0 loss. My next match was against Preacher Ronn and it went down to the wire and I escaped with a 3-2 win. In my last match I played Tres Kane from Phoenix, a very solid player. I had my chances but couldn't convert, losing 3-1.
In hindsight I'm reminded that to be tournament tough mentally as well as physically you need to play more tournaments and not just one every few years. My mind was never right in any match, thinking more about how I looked and playing around with my stroke and stance instead of just getting up there, hitting the ball and making the best shot I could under the circumstances. My mind was all over the place and not focused on the table where it should have been. Basically I never felt really comfortable at the table in any match I played. Maybe I've also gotten a little soft over the years, not quite so hungry anymore.
I plan to challenge myself more in the near future and see if I can find a way to recapture some of the old magic when pool was fun for me and I felt like I could make anything. Can I get back "in stroke" one more time in my life? Oh, how much fun and fulfilling that would be. Perhaps the most euphoric feeling I've ever had was being in total control on a pool table, where everything just flowed out of me naturally, almost without thought. I'd say I'm halfway there, but the last half is the hardest and I know it.
