"You can make this stuff up, but in our marriage, you don't have to."

What do you do when your 96-year-old mother-in-law gets stuck on the sofa and a neighbor has to call the rescue squad? Or when your own 91-year-old mother decides to give up underpants?

If you are Charlotte Johnson Jones, first you go to the kitchen and eat every cookie, buttery snack, and piece of chocolate you can get your hands on. Then you sit down and write.

"Eldercare Is Making Me Fat" is a set of tales about the challenges Jones and her husband, Herman, have faced as they try to manage the health and affairs of the women whom they affectionately (and with great exasperation) call "The Mothers."

Slim, irreverent, and truthful but touching-just as its author would like to be-"Eldercare" is the perfect book for everyone with an addled, stubborn parent or grandparent who is driving them to the doughnuts.

As a journalist in the 1980s and 1990s under the byline C. J. Houtchens, Charlotte Johnson Jones wrote for many national publications, including "The Washington Post, Travel and Leisure, Harper's Bazaar, " and "USA Weekend, " and profiled such diverse personalities as Maya Angelou, Sissy Spacek, two Miss America winners, African princess Elizabeth of Toro, musicians, artists, political figures, and the panda keeper at the National Zoo. "Eldercare Is Making Me Fat, " is her first book.