I was sad to hear that Nora Ephron died.
We were at Wellesley College at the same time.
She was two years behind me, class of 1962. I am class of 1960.
I was editor of the Wellesley College News when Nora joined the staff.
She was funny and smart.
I didn’t know she came from Hollywood royalty.
I thought she was just one of the girls.
I lost touch with her after I left college, but admired her from afar, like everyone else.
I’m glad I knew her.
She always had this big, tooth smile. Right to the end.
Diane
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Very funny writer. Sorry to see her gone so young.
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I am a patient person.
As a special ed. teacher, I have learned to be patient. It comes with the job.
But, I have completely lost my patience when it comes to cancer.
Thankfully, I do not have cancer. My prostate cancer was detected early.
I had surgery, and I am cancer-free.
But, there are too many cancers still out there that are difficult or impossible to treat.
And I have lost patience with them.
Steve Jobs, 56, died of pancreatic cancer.
Today, Norah Ephron, 71, died of leukemia.
When my dad told me he had cancer, he said, “This is not a tragedy.”
He was 73. He would have been 91 this year. He felt that he’d lived a good life.
He had, but it had been cut too short.
And I am tired of it.
I’m also ignorant.
Yes, I know that David Koch has donated over $41 million to cancer research.
God bless him.
But how much does the US government spend on this?
And how much would it take to really do the job?
And who in Congress is in favor or is against the government funding research?
There are times when I can be patient. This is not one of them.
I want to know, NOW, how much it will take to find a cure to these cancers.
Make a plan. Establish a goal. Figure it out.
If we can go to the moon, we can do this.
What it takes is a commitment.
How much will it cost?
Find out and fund the research to do it.
Do it now.
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I understand your frustration with cancer and cancer research. I lost my dad (pancreatic cancer) when I was 20 years old, he was 56. I’m 56 now.
It is good to look for cures but really what we should be doing is looking at prevention which would take a whole lot of environmental stewardship and cleanup. We have poisoned the air, water and land through the constant drive to “grow” the economy to the point that cancers almost become inevitable.
Things don’t look good for our children and grandchildren.
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please visit Nora’s online memorial and add your memories there! Let’s make this memorial BIG!
http://www.memmento.com/Memorial-at-Memmento/725/Nora-Ephron
please share
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I don’t spend my time feeling personally close to celebrities whom I have never met, any more than celebrities I’ve never met spend their time feeling personally close to me. But Nora Ephron is the one exception. I don’t remember ever being as devastated by the death of someone I didn’t know as by hers. We inhabited more or less the same era. She was Wellesley, Class of ’62, and I was Smith, Class of ’64. We’re both New Yorkers. We both entered publishing in the Sixties — she in magazine, I in book. We both became writers — she hugely successful, I mostly un. Long before she became a famous screenwriter and director, she was writing about the things that seemed most relevant to my life and doing it with a humor that was completely captivating and infectious. Her (rare) interviews were an absolute delight and I wish she’d done more of them.
How I wish, now that the private memorial Nora planned and wanted has occurred, that there could be a public memorial as well. I can’t be the only “civilian” who feels bereft at her
passing. Just a thought.
–Nancy Stark, New York City
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