A car that sits between visits does not stay ready by itself. Batteries drain, tires lose pressure, and the registration and insurance notices keep arriving whether anyone opens them or not. The question is not whether the car needs attention. It is who owns each task, and whether you can confirm it was done without driving three hours to look.
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List what has to stay current
Start with the paper and the parts. Find the registration, the insurance card, and any inspection or emissions date your state uses. Write each one down with its expiration date. Check the address printed on the registration against where she actually gets mail, because a renewal notice sent to an old address is an easy way for a deadline to pass unnoticed. Confirm the name on the title. Then call the motor vehicle office and ask what it needs from the title holder before a change could be made, so you learn the answer before you need it.
Name who starts it and how often
A parked car needs a regular check even if nobody drives it. Decide who does it. If someone local can start the engine, look at the tires, and read the dashboard lights on a set day, write that day and that person into your shared notes. If nobody local can, ask a repair shop whether they do a basic check on a parked vehicle and send you a written summary. Before booking, ask three things: whether the check includes the battery and tire pressure, whether they will email what they found, and whether they bill the check separately from any repair.
Decide what happens when it does not start
Pick the fix before the failure. Name the shop she already uses, confirm whether they will come to the curb or tow, and find out whether her roadside coverage, if she has any, covers a dead battery. Keep the policy number and the roadside number where you can read them over the phone. Find the keys too. Know who holds a spare, and whether that spare is still inside the house.
Decide what the car is for now
Ask her insurer whether the policy should change while the car sits, and what the change would involve. Ask the registration office the same question if the car will be parked for a long stretch. Whether she should keep driving at all is a separate conversation between her, her family, and her doctor, and nothing on this page settles it. What this page can do is make sure the car is not left for a letter to decide.
Tonight
Open the registration and the insurance card. Write down the renewal dates, the name on the title, and the address on file. Ask her to read the dates aloud, or send a photo of each card so you have a copy you can open without calling anyone. Then send the shop a note asking whether they do a check on a parked car, and what they would look at.
What to leave with the doctor
Take one question in writing: whether anything about her health should change how the car is used, and whether the doctor will note the answer in her file. Ask it plainly and keep the reply in the same folder as the registration.