Some Thoughts on Tatiana Schlossberg’s Death

When my mom first mentioned the granddaughter of John F. Kennedy, my initial thought was The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. I read the book a long time ago, when I was too young to grasp the complexities and symbolic elements of it but read it anyway. I don’t remember much, probably because I didn’t understand much, but I do remember crying when Bailey, Tibby’s new friend, died at age 12 of leukemia. The main focus of the book was the separation of 4 friends to different summer activities, but (as I didn’t understand then but do understand now) the pair of jeans that they share between them keeps the group united. Tibby, one of the core four, got a job in a local store, where by a long turn of events she befriended Bailey. I was devastated when Tibby learned that Bailey’s parents were only letting her out of the house with so much freedom because they wanted her to experience life in the little amount of time she had left to live.

So in the case of Mrs. Tatiana Scholossberg, who just died at age 35 due to leukemia, I was heartbroken (any of my friends will testify that I am a very tearful book-reader and movie-watcher). I read Penelope Green’s New York Times obituary on her, and for a moment I thought that I had succeeded in making it through without crying, but then I scrolled and realized there was more. Most devastating to me was when she wrote that her kids would grow up with no memories of their mother. It’s yet another bullet point on the list of the Kennedy family tragedies, but it’s no less painful nor haunting.

I also just started reading When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, and it’s jarring how similar their stories are. Completely healthy individuals. Passionate about the world they lived in. Well educated. Mid thirties, just establishing a family of their own. Died of cancer. It’s terrifying, how quickly one can go from seeing a lifetime ahead of them to realizing that their days are numbered.