My father-in-law passed away nearly 2 years ago. Because of other issues his gorgeous ponytail palm was left in the house and neglected for nearly a year. I recently got it, nearly every leaf was dead, but there are surprisingly still green leaves. I don't think it had been watered in over 6-8 months. I trimmed off all of the dead leaves. Can you give me tips on how to save this precious plant?

for the loss of your father-in-law.
to the site.
You've got it in the right place as close to the window as possible. 6-8 months IS along time with no water, but not fatal to this drought adapted plant. Water it thoroughly when you do and then let it get seriously dry before you water it again, but don't wait 6 months.
It can go outside in the summer if you want to give it a boost in mostly sun. When it is outside it can be watered more, like with rain. Fertilizing is not necessary, but will make it lusher. Watch for mealybug down among the leaf bases. It is in a smallish pot but they don't need a lot of soil. You could shift it up an inch or so. Use a cactus mix with plenty of perlite and/or pumice. They can live for decades as houseplants and it can become a pass-a-long heirloom.

Happy Plant Parenting!

That is all really excellent advice. The more light, the better indoors. Right in front of a sunny, unobstructed southerly facing window is ideal during the cooler months. No curtain, no blinds.

Regarding the dead leaves and tips... as the plant grows, it replaces older leaves with new ones. So the lower leaf tips will continuously die back. More so during times of drought or neglect, but also under the best care. Maybe wait and observe this process before you do another grooming session, so you get a sense of how it works.

I am a lazy gardener and my usual maintenance is to wait for a couple of the lower leaves to go fully dry, then pull them from the stem. They fully release on their own at that point so just a gentle tug and they're off. If they don't release easily, they're not ready.

Me too.