A woman was telling me about her 90-year-old mother.
“She was recently released from the hospital and she’s been given everyone a hard time. It’s not that she’s senile. It’s just that she’s very stubborn and won’t listen to anyone. I, I, I don’t know what to do with her anymore.”
“You see that mountain over there,” I asked, pointing out the window.
“Yes.”
“Well, it can get awfully cold there at night . . .”
“I don’t follow you.”
“Why not take o-bā-chan for a little drive into the mountains and . . .”
“You’re a terrible person.”
“I’m just trying to help.”
From Wiki: "Ubasute (姥捨て, 'abandoning an old woman', also called obasute and sometimes oyasute 親捨て 'abandoning a parent') is the mythical practice of senicide in Japan, whereby an infirm or elderly relative was carried to a mountain, or some other remote, desolate place, and left there to die. Accordingto the Kodansha Illustrated Encyclopedia of Japan, ubasute 'is the subject of legend, but [...] does not seem ever to have been a common custom'.