Randy Pausch

Randy Pausch died on Friday at 47 from Pancreatic Cancer. Back in April, I wrote that his book was coming out and that I was looking forward to reading it. Well, it was a wonderful read. If you’ve watched the Last Lecture and haven’t read the book, you’re missing out on so much.

One particular piece I bookmarked was in the chapter called “The park is open until 8 p.m.”. In it, Randy recalls his “medical odyssey” which began in the summer of 2006 when he felt some pain in his upper abdomen. In one particular trip to the doctor after the cancer diagnosis, he and his wife, Jai, flew to Houston. Before attending the appointment they went to a water park and had some fun. “I rode the speed slide, grinning all the way down”, he wrote.

Next day, they attended the doctor and unfortunately the news was pretty bad. Latest test results revealed that previous treatments had not stopped the progress of the cancer. The doctor told them that he probably had “three to six months of good health”.

At the end of the meeting, the doctor hugged Jai and shook my hand, and Jai and I walked out together, into our new reality.

Leaving the doctor’s office, I thought about what I’d said to Jai in the water park in the afterglow of the speed slide. “Even if the scan results are bad tomorrow,” I had told her, “I just want you to know that it feels great to be alive, and to be here today, alive with you. Whatever news we get about the scans, I’m not going to die when we hear it. I won’t die the next day, or the day after that, or the day after that. So today, right now, well this is a wonderful day. And I want you to know how much I’m enjoying it.”

I thought about that, and about Jai’s smile.

I knew then. That’s the way the rest of my life would need to be lived.

Randy Pausch. October 23, 1960 – July 25, 2008.