The Death of Steve Jobs: In Medias Res

The illness and death of the iconic Steve Jobs have stimulated much conversation both online and off. I won't rehash that now.

In case you missed it, NYT published the eulogy delivered by Steve's sister, Mona Simpson, who is a novelist and English professor.

"One time when Steve had contracted a tenacious pneumonia his doctor forbid everything — even ice. We were in a standard I.C.U. unit. Steve, who generally disliked cutting in line or dropping his own name, confessed that this once, he’d like to be treated a little specially.

I told him: Steve, this is special treatment.

He leaned over to me, and said: “I want it to be a little more special.”

Intubated, when he couldn’t talk, he asked for a notepad. He sketched devices to hold an iPad in a hospital bed. He designed new fluid monitors and x-ray equipment. He redrew that not-quite-special-enough hospital unit. And every time his wife walked into the room, I watched his smile remake itself on his face.

For the really big, big things, you have to trust me, he wrote on his sketchpad. He looked up. You have to.

By that, he meant that we should disobey the doctors and give him a piece of ice."

A remarkable blending of the mundane with the extraordinary. He put his two pant legs on and wanted his ice chips just like everyone else.

Oh, how I'd love to see those drawings.

The eulogy hints at how Jobs' illness and treatments interacted with his goals of care (which I'm guessing he was able to clearly define) and quality of life. Given the amount of discussion in our society which surrounded his illness and death, how special might it be to know how he went about making various decisions related to his health care? That could be a beautiful contribution to our society. There is no doubt that limitless financial resources played a role in the care which he received, but he wasn't in the ICU or even the hospital when he died.

"We all — in the end — die in medias res. In the middle of a story. Of many stories."