Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Amy Krouse Rosenthal and the Power of Love



I don't know how many times I've heard a dying person say, " I'm glad I'm going first because I can't imagine living without my beloved husband/wife/companion."

Which although it's exactly how I feel, always makes me feel a little guilty or wonder whether I'm being a bit selfish.

So I give thanks for the life of Amy Krouse Rosenthal.



Who died on Monday, but not before leaving one last love letter for her beloved Jason. 

I want more time with Jason. I want more time with my children. I want more time sipping martinis at the Green Mill Jazz Club on Thursday nights. But that is not going to happen. I probably have only a few days left being a person on this planet. 

So why I am doing this? I am wrapping this up on Valentine’s Day, and the most genuine, non-vase-oriented gift I can hope for is that the right person reads this, finds Jason, and another love story begins.


Which has to be one of the most beautiful and most moving love letters I have ever read.

And has forced me to rethink how I'd like my future to unfold. 

For although when I told Sébastien that I'd now like him to die first, he didn't seem too impressed. Quoi???? What????

I do hope people read Amy's obituary, and understand where that sad love letter came from...



From her love for Jason, and her love for life   

“Amy ran at life full speed and heart first,” Maria Modugno, her editor at Random House, said in a phone interview. “Her writing was who she was.”

And her realization that nothing lasts forever.

Her favorite line from literature, she once said, was in Thornton Wilder’s play “Our Town,” as spoken by the character Emily as she bids the world goodbye: “Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?”

Because that is the message I like to pass on to the dying. i.e. all of us.

Time waits for nobody...



So live life like there was no tomorrow. 

Be a little crazy.

And never ever ever take it for granted....



Nothing can compete with the power of love.

Sebastien Toutant is a winner. 

But so was Amy Krouse Rosenthal...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What an amazing lady.
Thanks for sharing this touching story Simon.
JD

Simon said...

hi JD...you're welcome. It's not the kind of story I usually write about, but I found it incredibly moving, and I just had to share it...