Guess Who Was on Jeopardy Last Night?

Last night, my telephone started buzzing. “Turn connected the TV!” said my uncle. “Did we cognize astir this?!!” asked my sister-in-law Emily. “Tonight’s Jeopardy!” wrote CoJ contributor Kelly Dawson, on with a photograph she snapped successful her surviving room:

On the screen, the Jeopardy punctual was, “Dying of lung cancer, Paul Kalanithi attempted to reply what makes beingness worthy surviving successful ‘When Breath Becomes’ this.”

Of course, I instantly called my sister, Lucy. Long-time readers volition cognize that she and Paul were joined for 8 years earlier helium died successful 2015. She helped shepherd his memoir — When Breath Becomes Air — to work the pursuing year.

On the phone, Lucy and I archetypal laughed astir the crippled amusement itself. Can you ideate if idiosyncratic asked the question, “What is air?” And you answered, “Dying of lung cancer, Paul Kalanithi attempted to reply what makes beingness worthy surviving successful ‘When Breath Becomes’ this.” A genuinely chaotic answer, haha.

But my sister was touched and blessed that Paul’s memoir is inactive portion of the taste conversation. “One of the things that truly amazed maine aft Paul died was that he really died,” she said successful a caller Big Salad issue (gift link). “He’d had late-stage crab for 2 years, and I adjacent knew helium was going to dice that precise day, but erstwhile idiosyncratic really dies, they conscionable disappear. They conscionable vanish. It felt truthful shocking to me.”

We ever sojourn Paul’s sedate erstwhile we sojourn San Francisco, and Lucy and her girl spell regularly with friends and family, particularly connected days similar New Year’s Eve oregon Paul’s birthday. “Sometimes I spell alone, particularly erstwhile I don’t consciousness similar myself,” she told me. “I’ll prevarication connected him, and past I’ll consciousness better. On our wedding anniversary, I’ll bring him a citrus from our citrus tree.”

Did you spot the Jeopardy occurrence yesterday? And are you missing anyone today? xoxo

P.S. How to constitute a condolence note, and what bash you deliberation happens erstwhile you die?

(Thanks to Kelly Dawson for the real-time photo!)