JUDITH WOODSON: Wishing I’d served my ailing father more pie and beer, and less yogurt:

Hospice literature suggests that the dying often lose interest in food. My father did. He looked, mystified, at all I’d set out. “Now, who is going to eat this?” he marveled, and while everyone else ate, he and I just held hands.

Then, at the sound of a beer being opened, a mischievous light entered his face. “Hey,” he said. “I’ll have some of that!”

Carpe Diem.