On Death and Dying: A Columnist’s Final Story
“Gene Amole is a giant of Denver journalism and the heart of the Rocky Mountain News. In October, he told his readers in a front-page column that he was dying. What an incredible experience it has been. Gene is still writing as he approaches his 79th birthday. Death hasn’t come as quickly as he had expected – even hoped. But his diary of dying has taken readers on a voyage of discovery, a journey that has shed more light on the meaning of life than on the darkness of death.”
Here’s a newspaper columnist that people seem to love – they wish he could’ve been their dad or grandpa. He’s slowly dying — more slowly than everyone anticipated — and he’s chronicling his final days for his legions of reader fans.
I read many of his columns but found precious little that, as his editor says, “shed more light on the meaning of life than on the darkness of death.” It’s way more diary than introspective or spiritual journal. What’s cool, though, is that the guy is upbeat and living life as fully as possible. He’s modeling how to do it. He doesn’t believe in the traditional heaven or hell, though he apparently does believe in God. But he’s leaving a legacy that will long live on after him, which is a damn good afterlife.