I had never met her in person, but I felt like I had known her. So when she passed away I took a holy-crap-I-can’t-believe-that-happened moment.
Cancer is a bastard. Pinche Leukemia.
It takes the lives of some very beloved family members and friends that are close to you. And it takes away lives that have made some sort of impact on your life.
Image via Wikipedia.com
Yesterday I heard that writer and director Nora Ephron passed away at the age of 71, losing her battle to cancer.
She liked Meg Ryan. She made me like her too. When Harry Met Sally. Sleepless in Seattle. You’ve Got Mail. These were awesome chick flicks and I loved the comedy and characters in each one. I liked their flaws. I have flaws. I thought I could be a character in the movie. The best-friend-supporting-comic-relief kind of character. Yeah … she’d like someone like me.
But one of the most inspiring movies for struggling writers that Ephron wrote and directed had to be Julie & Julia. C’mon now. Blogger turned best-selling author, whose life was then put on the big screen. Amy Adams and Meryl Streep.
Meryl Streep. Dude. I bet she met Meryl Streep. And the food in this movie … Ohhh forget about it!
That film was every struggling writer’s dream. You start a blog and someone awesome discovers it. Then you’re published. Then you meet people like Nora Ephron, Amy Adams and Meryl Streep.
But Nora was more than just the movies. When looking at the different television pieces that shared her story, I saw an excerpt from one of her books: I Remember Nothing. It was her two lists. The lists of things she would and would not miss when she passed away. As I saw the lists posted with pictures of her in the background, I thought to myself: How awesome was this chick?
I would have liked to have met her in person. She was funny, true, strong, and smart. I enjoyed these lists. It let me peek into her little world. It occurred to me that I don’t have two lists. I may need to think on that.
Nora Ephron’s Two Lists
What I Won’t Miss:
Dry skin
Bad dinners like the one we went to last night
E-mail
Technology in general
My closet
Washing my hair
Bras
Funerals
Illness everywhere
Polls that show that 32 percent of the American people believe in creationism
Polls
Fox TV
The collapse of the dollar
Bar Mitzvahs
Mammograms
Dead flowers
The sound of the vacuum cleaner
Bills
E-mail. I know I already said it, but I want to emphasize it.
Small print
Panels on Women in Film
Taking off makeup every night
What I Will Miss:
My kids
Nick
Spring
Fall
Waffles
The concept of waffles
Bacon
A walk in the park
The idea of a walk in the park
The park
Shakespeare in the Park
The bed
Reading in bed
Fireworks
Laughs
The view out the window
Twinkle lights
Butter
Dinner at home just the two of us
Dinner with friends
Dinner with friends in cities where none of us lives
Paris
Next year in Istanbul
Pride and Prejudice
The Christmas tree
Thanksgiving dinner
One for the table
The dogwood
Taking a bath
Coming over the bridge to Manhattan
Pie
The Wish Factor 
Such an amazing , talented and generous person. To meet her would be an honor to anyone. I have not seen Julie and Julia but now I will…soon hopefully. As for cancer, I hope and pray that one day we’ll find cure for it. It is a devastating disease and no words are there to describe the pain and loss that it causes. Beautiful post. Thanks. Have a great weekend.
I had a lot of admiration and respect for NE and like you, I felt sad when I heard she bought her rainbow. My sister even wept. I had no idea she was ill, so I was quite surprised that someone that always seemed so active was nobly suffering a disease that would topple her. She used to live in a building called the Apthorpe, located three blocks away from my no-name humble brownstone on Manhattan’s Upper West Side — not to imply that I was running into her at the dry cleaner’s or in my neighborhood bodega. I never saw her even once. Still, whenever I walked past the Apthorpe, I would think of her. Nora was a gem and I’m glad she made New York city her home. Now I feel like her closest successor is Tina Fey.