If you have not read the eulogy delivered by Mona Simpson at her brother's memorial service, it's worth taking the time to do so. (http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/opinion/mona-simpsons-eulogy-for-steve-jobs.html?pagewanted=all) She writes of learning at age 25 that Steve Jobs was her brother and of their relationship in three phases. "His full life. His illness. His dying." Most people with even a passing interest have learned more about Steve Jobs since his death with the extensive media coverage and the publication of his biography written by Walter Isaacson.
I am in the most people category; he never much interested me during his lifetime, even though his IPhone is a constant companion.
She tells of his last day, observing of his breath, that it "indicated an arduous journey, some steep path, altitude. He seemed to be climbing." His final words? "Monosyllables repeated three times. Before embarking, he'd looked at his sister Patty, then for a long time at his children, then at his life's partner, Laurene, and then over their shoulders past them. Steve's final words were: OH WOW. OH WOW. OH WOW."
When his biographer was interviewed for 60 Minutes, Steve Kroft asked Isaacson if they had ever discussed the possibility of an afterlife. Isaacson responded, "I remember sitting in the backyard in his garden one day and he started talking about God. He said, "sometimes I believe in God, sometimes I don't. I think it's 50-50 maybe. But since I've had cancer, I've been thinking about it more. And I find myself believing it a bit more. I kind of -- maybe it 's cause I want to believe in an afterlife. That when you die, it doesn't all just disappear."
Steve Jobs was a visionary. He expanded our world and changed the way we use technology. He created things of beauty.
It has given me comfort to know that he saw something in his final hours on earth of a beyond that is awesome and wonderful. It had to be an afterlife that wowed even Steve Jobs.
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