Michael and Dorothy McDaid, 1985

Michael McDaid, my uncle and the last of my father's siblings, passed away last Monday after a prolonged illness. He lived with our family all the time I was growing up, and when his health started to decline, my mom, the (by then a retired) RN, took care of him until her stroke.

Although Michael was confined to a wheelchair, he was a most mobile and energetic 92-year-old. He played bingo with enormous enthusiasm, and just a few days before he died, insisted on going on the nursing home's all-day field trip to a farm. He lived a long, happy life, and he passed so peacefully on Monday morning that I genuinely thought he was just asleep. A thought from one of his favorite songs:

"I feel that old tyrant approaching
 That cruel, remorseless old foe...
 And I lift up my glass in his honor:
 Take a drink with Old Rosin the Bow."