Hey /an/.

So my 19-year-old cat has been getting pretty frail lately. I've been away at school the past three or four months, and I come home to see that she has lost significant weight and does not move from the carpet around her food/water dish. She is not very strong, though she is still responsive and talkative to people. My mother refuses to take her to the vet on the grounds that she believes it's a waste of money given my cat's age. So, what's your experience with frail, aging cats, /an/? I've had my cat since I was 3 and it's very difficult to see her this way. She wasn't this bad during the summer (though she did have decreased energy, it seemed). It's just hard because she is dying while I'm not even around to be with her.