Talia, to her credit, cooperated fully with the investigators, and admitted she had known Walt was being neglected and had been too afraid of our mother to say so.

I did not cut her off completely.

But I put a wall between us that I have not taken down.

With the funds Walt left in my care, I started the Walt Prentice Veteran Care Initiative — home care, delivered meals, and legal advocacy for low-income and terminally ill veterans, so that no other old soldier would lie alone in a cold house waiting for someone who was not coming.

On the wall of our first small office I hung a photograph of him.