My uncle Woody and I, as he and my great aunt Ann, make their monthly visit to my dad’s place in Ontario to help replenish his supplies. They had brought my dad their old TV because they’d bought a new one, and since their old one was larger than my dad’s, they donated, and I installed it. From there, we all piled into two cars and headed to the Guasti Homestyle Cafe, not far from my dad’s place, for breakfast.

This would be the last photo I would ever take of my father again. It was a look I hadn’t known for a long time as he’d started growing out his beard and let his hair grow long in a way that was reminiscent of how Howard Hughes looked towards the end of his life. Just before our arrival, his wife Diane helped him clean up by cutting his hair and beard before taking the razor to his face, leaving his face raw. Growing up, I never knew him to have more than one day of hair growth on his face, and he was diligent in keeping his hair well-kempt at all times.

After visiting with family, Caroline and I drove back into Los Angeles, stopping on the way at the San Gabriel Nursery for some curry plants she’d called for. In downtown Los Angeles, we met up with our friend Mark Shimer and his friend Cephas in Little Tokyo and visited Kinokuniya Bookstore, where we picked up books about the movie Spirited Away before grabbing dinner at a local Shabu Shabu place. We also left L.A. with some “An pan” (soft rolls filled with sweet bean paste) and Baumkuchen. Sadly, no more photos were taken after leaving my dad’s place. One explanation might be that we ran out of space on our memory cards and without a notebook, there was nowhere to transfer the pictures to.