It’s just a tin cup. The kind that prisoners used to bang against the bars of their jail cells in old movies. The kind the chuck wagon cook used to dish up campfire stew for the cowboys.

It’s exactly 8 ounces, with markings denoting ¼, ½, ¾ and 1 cup.

It is the most precious thing I have of my mother’s. A few years ago, I discovered it in her cupboard as I was putting away dishes. I could not believe she still had “the cup.” That cup brought back so many wonderful memories.

As the oldest child, I had some “me” time with my mother before my sisters were born. Once they came along, we all had to share my mother, but cooking time was, for all my childhood years, that time when my mother and I did something together by ourselves.

A few weeks ago my husband and I were invited to a small dinner party. My friend wanted us to visit with his 90-year-old father, who was in town for a brief stay.

It had been a long time since I’d seen his father, maybe 20 years. Since then, his wife had passed away and he was living alone in the Midwest. He’d recently traveled to the West Coast for an extended stay in the desert and now was in our area for a visit with his son before heading home.

My friend’s father (I will call him Bill) looked great: trim and well-dressed. We chatted into the evening, catching each other up on our lives and activities.

It was during this exchange that it first happened.

Bill asked my husband what he did for a living, and my husband explained he worked for a corporation in the tax department.

At a lull in the conversation, Bill said to my husband, “So, Dennis, this must be a busy time of year for you with tax season and all.”

My husband’s name is Peter.

The cost of medical and dental care is typically the largest expense for older Americans. Fortunately, some of these bills may be tax-deductible.

The 2016 tax year could be the last time adults age 65 and older can take advantage of a lower threshold for deducting a portion of your medical and dental expenses.

If you itemize your deductions on Schedule A of your tax return, among the categories to list are medical and dental expenses. However, they are subject to a limit.

For many years, the limit was 7.5 percent of a taxpayer’s adjusted gross income, meaning that only those medical expenses in excess of 7.5 percent of a taxpayer’s AGI were deductible. For example, if someone’s AGI was $40,000, only those medical and dental expenses that exceeded $3,000 (7.5 percent times $40,000 equal $3,000) would be deductible.

But the rules for deducting medical and dental expenses changed in 2013, increasing that threshold to 10 percent of AGI.

Seniors got a brief reprieve as Congress exempted people age 65 and older from the 10 percent threshold until 2017.