“I think that’s part of the dynamic with five kids…our parents weren’t micromanagers. We all raised each other along the way.”
"He's the oldest. He's the rock." "The patriarch." "He's the deep diver. The guy on the phone with all the doctors, communicating everything and making it beautiful and artistic along the way."
"He's the fireman, and if there's any kind of fire he just wants to grab the hose and put it out." "He's not afraid of fire. He's a leader and people follow him." "Yet at the same time, he instigates...an arsonist fireman!"
"That’s easy—she’s our producer.” “She's always been like that. She did my senior year scrapbook.” “Mine too!” “I organized Christmases. I made sure everybody had the presents they wanted and then I wrapped them for Mom.” “She does it effortlessly.
"She’s the healer and the baby whisperer.” “The mediator…the harmonizer." “She’s so even keeled." “When Dad was going through chemo she would sit and rub his feet.”
“He’s the rebel with a cause.” “He has been the most free. He did his own thing.” “He was the only one still at home when Mom and Dad split.” “I got to hear all the fallout of the divorce. I didn’t process it then, but I know it now. It’s probably w
"When there are five kids, nobody is fully the middle child."
"Our Dad wasn’t focused on the world. Like his brother said at the funeral: He had no concept of space and time." “Which was maddening to our mother. He would say, 'The kids need to go to Paris for the summer!’” “And Mom would say, 'NO, they need sn
“Losing your parents like we did reframes everything. It accelerates a lot of conversations that some people never have. I had incredible conversations with them…and fights too. It really is the second cutting of the cord.”
"When Mom was dying, I could be across the room and say, "Mama?" and she would wake right up." “But when I would say it, she would be like, "Zzzzzzz." "You know she was thinking, "He’ll be FINE. But the other one…she needs a heavy sweater."
"There was the time I stole Dad’s cigarettes and I woke up to you standing over me holding them. You were 7 or 8. So you’re holding these cigarettes and I—criminal mind!—I quickly said, 'Those were cigarettes we took from Mom and Dad to help them qu
"One time Dad gave us this lecture about walking away instead of fighting, and that same night we had this fight. One thing my brother knows how to do is to weaponize words...So we were fighting and he started teasing me saying, 'I’m going to walk a
"Dad always said we were his investment portfolio." "And Mom said we were her pièce de résistance."
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