He also includes many attributed quotations from books. The last dated entry was made on July 5, 1971. Gedney was diagnosed with AIDS and Kaposi's Sarcoma in March 1987. At the time he began this appointment book, he was living in a house on Staten Island, a house he had purchased in 1985 with the intention of renovating to be his permanent home. Over the year, Gedney used this notebook to record his symptoms, treatments, and medical appointments, as well as some of the details of his daily life - such as phone calls and visits from friends, trips to the city, his work in the garden, the leak in his roof.
Entries become more brief and scattered in the last month of the year.
William Gedney became increasingly ill in the spring of 1989 and died on June 23 in his home on Staten Island. Gedney was diagnosed with AIDS and Kaposi's Sarcoma in March 1987. In these account books, Gedney kept track of his income and his every expense. There are no entries for July and a single final entry was made on August 16, 1970. There are two loose pages, dated from January and February 1971, inserted in the front of this diary.