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and could French braid a little girl’s hair better than anyone in Whiskey Gap.
    He instilled resourcefulness, compassion and a sense of worthiness in each of his kids, not by what he said, but by example. He believed in hard work, marriage, fatherhood and apple pie, lots of pie.
    The hospital room was dark; Rocky opened the draperies and returned to her knitting. She had started a pair of socks for Dad. They were bright green, like Marly made for her Dad, Rich Richland. Rocky hoped that she could remember her sock class when she reached the heel part. It seemed as though she took that class a hundred years ago.
    “Why are the drapes open?” A nurse came into Dad’s room.
    “I opened them, Dad is an outdoorsman, and he would like to see outside, check the weather, and watch the clouds,” Rocky answered.
    “Our critically ill patients like the drapes closed.” With finality the nurse closed the drapes, checked all the tubes running to and fro Rocky’s Dad and left without another word.
    “Well Dad, I figure she won't be back for another hour,” Rocky opened the drapes again and smiled at her sleeping Father. Rocky knew if he could give her a conspiratorial chuckle he could.
    Devlin, Margie and Rocky went on for three more days, each of them taking a four-hour shift. Rocky was there the remaining hours when her brother and his wife had to work.
    Most of that time, Rocky sat and held her Dad’s hand. Occasionally he would gently press her hand in return. Rocky knew he was there and he knew that she was there with him.
    During one of the hours Rocky was not there, she got a call from Margie and went immediately to the hospital. Her Dad was much worse and the young doctor advised the family to say their goodbyes. Devlin called Dad’s priest and they held hands and prayed.
    The three of them joined hands with Dad and they were like that when he slipped away from them. They stayed together until his hands were cold.
    There were no words to express how alone Rocky felt. She could not go on. She went to bed with the dogs. She sobbed for the wonderful man who she was lucky enough to have as a parent. Rocky felt she would have been lucky to even know him, but she was in his special place, his family.
    After the services, several people told her that the church was overflowing with their Father’s friends who came to pay their respects and say goodbye. Rocky remembered none of it. The family made decisions about the funeral arrangements, but none of them could remember what they were. Rocky did not know how Devlin and Margie went back to work the next week. She was glad for once that she was not employed. She spent each day on the back deck of her brother’s house or walking the dogs at the park like a big lovely zombie.
    The family attorney read the will. It had never occurred to Rocky that her father did not always struggle financially. She remembered things being tough after he bought the cabin and the claim, but neither of his children had any idea the extent of his finances. No one did. Devlin and Margie were renting their house from Dad and he left that house to them and several other rental properties in Auburn. Other than his attorney, no one knew he owned them.
    The Animal Rescue Shelter received a gift of an air conditioning and heating system for the shelter, Dad always worried about the animals getting cold or hot. The money in his bank accounts went directly to the hospital and doctors for their final bills. Dad left Rocky five acres in the Sierra Nevada Mountains with a three bedroom cabin on it and the American River running through it. The river had his working gold claim on it. All the equipment for dredging gold and his old truck went with it.
    Dad granted Rocky’s wish for a place of her own and a way to earn a living.
    “It’s pretty much of a wreak of a little cabin,” her brother said to Margie and Rocky. They were having coffee at the house in Auburn after the reading of the will.
    “I remember