As the last vanguards of the Greatest Generation pass, 7 things to know when caring for a parent

My father-in-law passed away last month, days away from his 99th birthday. He lived with us for 13 years. He was a great man, a World War II veteran who loved his wife and raised three children.

One night, the security camera never activated. Instead, our daughter knocked on the bedroom door sometime past 2 a.m. "Pop-Pop is in the kitchen!" she said. Chuck DeVore is a vice president with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, was elected to the California legislature, is a retired U.S. Army lieutenant colonel, and the author of the new book, "Crisis of the House Never United."

His parents were born in Sicily, and he spoke nothing but Sicilian Italian until he went to public school in New York. The actors in "The Godfather" were taught how to speak in the dialect. I asked him after one such scene if he could understand them. 

"Every word," he replied with a smile.