After penning a dating profile for her husband in The New York Times titled You May Want To Marry My Husband (and simultaneously leaving the world, collectively, in a soul-crushingly sobbing heap), terminally ill writer Amy Krouse Rosenthal has passed away, aged 51.
Amy, who is a renowned children’s book author, has been battling ovarian cancer since 2015, with the disease tragically taking her life on Monday, March 13.
Just two weeks ago, Amy captured the internet’s hearts when she opted to write a touching piece about her beloved husband, Jason, from her deathbed – and it came in the form of a Tinder profile.
“I have never been on Tinder, Bumble or eHarmony, but I’m going to create a general profile for Jason right here, based on my experience of coexisting in the same house with him for, like, 9,490 days,” she began.
“First, the basics: He is 5-foot-10, 160 pounds, with salt-and-pepper hair and hazel eyes.”
“The following list of attributes is in no particular order because everything feels important to me in some way.”
“If our home could speak, it would add that Jason is uncannily handy. On the subject of food — man, can he cook.”
“After a long day, there is no sweeter joy than seeing him walk in the door, plop a grocery bag down on the counter, and woo me with olives and some yummy cheese he has procured before he gets to work on the evening’s meal.”
“He is an absolutely wonderful father. Ask anyone. See that guy on the corner? Go ahead and ask him; he’ll tell you. Jason is compassionate — and he can flip a pancake.”
She then went on to reminisce on the time he rocked up to the ultrasound of their first baby with flowers, and how he surprises her every Sunday morning “by making some kind of oddball smiley face out of items near the coffeepot: a spoon, a mug, a banana”.
“My guess is you know enough about him now,” she continues. “So let’s swipe right.”
Since this moving essay hit the internet just weeks ago, many have been quick to share their bittersweet love of the tender tribute, telling the Twitterverse that upon reading Amy’s piece, they balled their eyes out as much as we did.
Of her tear-jerking story, her husband Jason, 52, told PEOPLE that while he didn’t know what she was working on at the time, he watched how physically difficult it was for his wife to write what would be a beautiful tribute in his honour.
“I didn’t know exactly what she was composing,” he says. “But I was with her as she labored through this process and I can tell you that writing the story was no easy task. When I read her words for the first time, I was shocked at the beauty, slightly surprised at the incredible prose given her condition and, of course, emotionally ripped apart.”
“I don’t have the same aptitude for the written word,” he said, “but if I did, I can assure you that my tale would be about the most epic love story… ours.”
Our thoughts are with Amy’s friends and family during this difficult time.
