By now you’ve probably seen the wave of news coverage about NPR’s weekend host Scott Simon tweeting from his mother’s hospital bedside as she lay dying of cancer. His mom said it was okay to do this.
His string of tweets presents beautiful raw prose, thoughts about love, the ICU, family reactions. When she died on Monday night, he tweeted, “The heavens over Chicago have opened and Patricia Lyons Simon Newman has stepped onstage.”
On July 30 he tweeted about dealing with making cemetery arrangements in Chicago. Sounds like he had some interactions with Dignity Memorial (SCI), which is currently dealing with a strike by funeral directors.
Reactions have been mixed – how dare he make something so private so public? And yet, I believe he is doing our society a great service. We need to talk about life-and-death issues. We need to talk about funeral planning. We need to tell those we love that we love them, hold their hands and hug them.
Here are just a few of the news stories:
NPR: Scott Simon on Sharing His Mother’s Final Moments on Twitter
CBS-TV News: NPR’s Scott Simon tweets from dying mother’s side
Huffington Post: NPR’s Scott Simon Live Tweeting His Mother’s Final Days
Los Angeles Times: NPR host Scott Simon tweets his mother’s dying days
NBC-TV Today Show: NPR’s Scott Simon tweets from his mother’s hospital bedside
Much love to you and your family at this time of loss, Scott Simon.