It was a cold and rainy afternoon, the perfect day to begin sorting out his belongings. I was still in mourning after my father’s death but the house had been sold so it was time to clear out the clutter. Unfortunately, soon after my father’s death, my mother had entered into a comatose state. My sister disappeared. So it was up to me to figure things out.

I decided to first clean out his office, which also served as his workshop and storage closet. My dad was very much a pack rat and despite my mother’s efforts to make the house look less cluttered, he still was adamant about keeping everything.

I bent down to open a large box on the floor and found the first post-it on an old 8-track/record player. It read, “Please keep me and play our old songs whenever you need me. I’ll be there.”