Does your mother have others she can vent/share her most personal fears with? While it's not fair to treat one person in our lives as a beast of burden, loading them up with our difficulties, we all do need someone we feel safe with, with whom we might be able to relieve the pressures of internal fear.

You've found the most likely explanation of her dreams, changes in her life that are truly frightening to her and representing maybe the removal of all the props she's used to date. And you are a very good story-teller, Tre, so consider telling her a story about a lady who had to let go of all she knew and face up a future without any crutches?