{"id":556,"date":"2026-10-14T16:29:44","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T16:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/?p=556"},"modified":"2026-10-14T16:29:44","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T16:29:44","slug":"the-last-year-of-his-life-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/the-last-year-of-his-life-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The Last Year of His Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Last Year of His Life<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My brother and I cleaned out Dad\u2019s room<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">at the assisted living facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Six bags full of<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; receipts: utility bills, credit cards<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; magazines: Physics, Science<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; paper: lists of chores to do around the house<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; letters from my grandmother<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I used a few bags to cover framed photos<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">to take home:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mt. Denali that we saw that night<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">in Alaska<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">the pileated woodpecker picture<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I gave him for Christmas<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a black lawn bag, we stuffed:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">the suit he wore to Mom\u2019s memorial<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">sweat pants we thought he would use<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">in rehab<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">his dress khakis, shirts and ties<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We took the clothes to Good Will for others to use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The Maynard<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Last Year of His Life My brother and I cleaned out Dad\u2019s room at the assisted living facility. Six bags full of &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; receipts: utility bills, credit cards &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; magazines: Physics, Science &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; paper: lists of chores to do around the house &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; letters from my grandmother I used a few bags to cover&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/the-last-year-of-his-life-2\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Last Year of His Life<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poems","category-published-poems"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":557,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556\/revisions\/557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecatbirdsang.com\/www\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}