She can barely hold a spoon to eat. I've given her massages, painted her nails, looked at her photo albums, she did crosswords but those are too hard for her now. She can still read, but it has to be light enough for her to hold. She doesn't watch much TV. She just stares out the window waiting to die.
I think over the years more and more medical facilities will be adding aquariums to their waiting rooms, or even trauma rooms.
My mother, now in a nursing home, has arthritis that prevents her from performing many fine motor skill tasks, but can use her hands for less detailed movements. For example, she cannot string beads during that craft activity, but she can sort the beads by color, which she loves doing. She can also sort coins, and I give her all my change once in a while to sort for me. She also loves sorting socks from the laundry. Men's socks are all too much alike, but mine are distinct colors and patterns and those she loves to do. I brought in a big basket recently and a woman sitting at her table dug in eagerly, too.
Sorting seems to be a nice activity for imposing little bit of order on some parts of the world!
Folding washclothes is another activity my mom loves. The aides used to give her a small basket of white handtowels to calm her down. I've brought in a small basket of colorful washclothes with different textures that she can fold once in a while.
To my great surprise, considering her arthritis, my mom likes to color and does it well.
At my house my mom used to like to use the paper shredder. My husband did too!
Mom plays simple card games.
Can you plant flowers as well, even if in container pots? Flowers are great mood improvers. If you plan to sequence the flower blooms (early, mid season, late and fall bloomers), there will be change to look forward to.
Libraries have books on tape, which she could listen to.
I don't know if it would help, but there are some arthritis adaptive tools that might help. I haven't paid much attention to them, so I don't know how practical they are, but they're worth a try.
Get a soft furry toy animal to leave with her. Even if it's not real, and given her arthritis, she could probably still have it in her lap and perhaps even pet it. The feel of the fur is soothing. Or buy a piece of fake fur at a fabric store, hem in, and create a stole or throw for her. Just something warm on her shoulders might make her feel better. It's amazing how much being warm can make an older person just feel a bit more comfortable.
Would she be more interested in tv if you could find nature programs, such as those on PBC? They're soothing on the eyes, don't require concentration, and (at least for me) quite calming.
Put a bird feeder outside that window so she has something to watch, hummingbird feeders are nice too!
Most older people seem to enjoy listening to music.
Word search can be a good pass time when crosswords become too difficult, or try to find simpler crosswords from the children's department.