I found this 1986 Cathy cartoon in the first of the boxes that had every tax return going back to 1956. Possibly a joke from Esther? She’s the one who clipped cartoons. She died in 2003, many tax returns ago. He filed taxes on time, but he saved EVERYTHING! !  Not just every tax return, but the receipts and the bank statements and the check registers and even the checks.  I’m fighting with my inclination to save way too much of all the stuff he saved… because my attic is already too full of all the stuff I saved.

Below is the message I sent to his sister (and my sister) in Japan. x Ruth

Seiko and family,

I am sad to report that Hideyasu Steve Yanai passed away early Tuesday morning, November 30, 2021.  Probably he had another heart attack.  He was feeling good on Monday, when I last talked to him.

I was very lucky to have spent an entire week with him—we take a full week off from classes for Thanksgiving at my university, and Nora’s school had three days off.  He wasn’t eating at the beginning of the week, until I started cooking rice for him.  He had two bowls of rice with natto every morning, and we made somen noodles for our Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday.

He said that he was going to live for a year!  He told us that he had been thinking he would only live a week (which turned out to be true).

We talked about trying to call you, both when I was with him last week and in October.  But he was very tired after his first heart attack in September, because his heart was not pumping very effectively.  Sometimes he could talk but sometimes that would tire him out.  And he often fell asleep at 7 p.m.  I wish he could have had a visit with you.

I am scheduled to be a visiting professor again in Tokyo, for February through April 2022, although I am not sure what Covid restrictions might bring.  Nina has suggested that she might be able to come visit me.  If we could see you, she could be a translator.  My Japanese was never very good, and I have lost much of what I had through lack of use.

Steve had not been able to live in his apartment since his first heart attack, but he was waiting to see if he might get better, and he was in a temporary room.  He finally moved to his own room just about a week before we visited him.

His partner, Pegi, had to move back to her own apartment.  They had been living together in his apartment, which was bigger than hers.  But she was not far away and was visiting him every day.  It was very nice that they were together for the year that nobody was allowed to visit.

Nora and I worked on decorating Steve’s new room, including the Totoro picture that you made (which Nora now has in New York City) and some pictures of Nina.

I still have beautiful handkerchiefs that you embroidered and sent to us as children!

Maybe you have these pictures already, I found them on Steve’s phone.  I’m so glad he got to see you.  I know that you thought every visit might be his last.

I miss him very much.  I made squash and soba noodles last night for dinner and I couldn’t call him for advice!  Please let me know how to burn incense in his memory.

Much love, your niece, Ruth Yanai