Most night routes are sized for one person walking alone. The moment someone walks beside her, the route needs more room, and that room has to sit in the right place. Settle this before you ask anyone to help with the trip.
Local option: New Plan Care gives families in the St. Louis area in-home help so a parent can stay home: companionship, help with bathing and dressing, meals, and overnight care. Call (314) 405-0887.
Start at the narrowest point
Walk the six stops with a tape measure. Do not measure the room you like best. Measure the clear width at the tightest spot on the route: usually the bedroom doorway, the corner where the hall meets the bathroom, or the bathroom doorway with the door open. Clear width is the space from the door stop to the opposite wall, past any trim, hinge, or hook that narrows it. Write the number down at each stop, next to the stop's name.
Then stand in each spot with your arms at your sides and turn slowly. If you can stand there with your shoulders clear of anything, the spot is wide enough for one person. A helper needs room for their body and their hands, and your mother needs room for her walker or her arm. Two people side by side is a different measurement from one.
Decide which side the helper walks on
Before you finish the hallway measurements, ask her physician or physical therapist which side the helper should stand on. Ask whether the helper belongs on her stronger side, her weaker side, or slightly behind her. Ask which hand she will hold with, and whether she needs a wall or rail on that side. The answer changes the width you need. A helper on the open side of a hallway needs the open space. A helper on the wall side needs that wall kept bare, with no hook, shelf, or pipe at hand height.
Write the answer as a one-line rule, such as: 'Helper on her left, her right hand on the rail, wall stays bare from the bedroom to the bath.' If you cannot get that answer, the route is not ready for a helper yet. That question belongs to the physician, not to a guess from the floor plan.
Test it with a person, not only a tape
A number on paper only tells you the space exists. Walk it. Have the helper stand where you wrote down, and have your mother walk the route at her usual pace with her usual equipment. Watch three things at each stop: whether the two of you pass without the helper leaning into a wall or door, whether the walker or her feet drift toward the open side, and whether anyone has to turn sideways to get through.
Repeat the walk in the dark with the night light on. If the helper's shoulder catches on the door frame in the dark, it will catch there at three in the morning too.
What to write down
Keep one page with six lines, one for each stop. Write the clear width, the helper's side, the hand she holds with, and any object at hand height that narrows the path. Note who did the measuring and when you walked it. Re-measure any stop that changes, such as a new rug, a moved chair, or a door that has been rehung. Keep a copy with the night plan so whoever is on duty that night can see it.
If a stop is too narrow for two people, do not widen it by guessing. Ask the physical therapist or a home evaluator what they would change, and check any figure you plan to use against the sources page before you order anything.