“Life is for the future, Rick, not thepast,” a friend inscribed on a card he sent me not long after my wife Polly passed away in 2003. I must say,these were not the most appreciated words I received during that difficult time of life.

For the first year and a half after Polly’s death, much of my attention was focused on the past. We had been married for nearly thirty-two years, and I had cared for Polly during her twenty years of serious illness. So it was only natural that most of my thoughts were focused on our life together—the life that was past. And I would change nothing about those days.

After Polly’s death, I needed to revisit the places that had been important to us: the nursing home where she had resided for eleven years, and the places we had enjoyed together during the years she was able to leave her bed.