Answer: lacking strength
Explanation:
The highlighted word is ''frail''.
The definition of frail in relation to a human being is someone who is physically weak and fragile.
In this context therefore, it is logical to assume that the word means that the person being referred to (the mother) is lacking strength. This would make sense because the mother is getting old and people get weaker as they age.
The denotative definition of a word is its literal meaning. This would be the meaning one would find in the dictionary.
By contrast, the connotative definition is the meaning associated with the word. It is the implied meaning of the word.
For example, the words in bold have the same denotation but different connotations:
-- a beautiful woman
-- a handsome woman
-- a pretty woman
While all these words mean the same thing, they do not have the same associations.
