I LOST some weight last month. I removed half of the keys I carried for all of my adult life from my key ring, and returned them to the real-estate company whose properties include the apartment that my family rented for seventy-six years. I used those keys constantly after I married, visiting my parents and younger siblings, then my widowed mother, then my brother, who lived there for the past eleven years and died two months ago. The apartment had to be vacated in a couple of weeks, its contents sorted, distributed, sold, donated, stored, or abandoned as junk. Seeing the cartons and large black trash bags pile up, it struck me that death might be the ultimate repo man. After the place was more or less empty, I gave the keys to the landlord. When I unlock the door to the apartment I live in with my husband, my now-lighter key ring cues a sense of diminishment.

中文翻译：

---

剩下什么

我上个月瘦了一些。我从钥匙圈中取出了我成年后携带的一半钥匙，并将它们归还给房地产公司，该公司的财产包括我家租了七十六年的公寓。我结婚后经常使用这些钥匙，拜访我的父母和弟弟妹妹，然后是我寡居的母亲，然后是我的兄弟，他在那里住了 11 年，两个月前去世了。公寓不得不在几周内腾空，里面的物品被分类、分发、出售、捐赠、储存或作为垃圾丢弃。看到纸箱和黑色大垃圾袋堆积如山，我突然想到死亡可能是最终的回购人。地方差不多空了之后，我把钥匙给了房东。当我打开我和丈夫住的公寓的门时，