SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
We want to take a moment now to mark the death of Tatiana Schlossberg.
MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
She was the granddaughter of a president, John F. Kennedy. But we're remembering her today because of her work as a journalist and because of a remarkable essay she wrote for The New Yorker in which she talked about being diagnosed last year with a rare form of cancer. She'd just turned 34.
DETROW: Schlossberg hadn't felt sick. In fact, her cancer was discovered the day she gave birth to her second child. Here's part of what she wrote.
KELLY: (Reading) My son knows that I am a writer and that I write about our planet. Since I've been sick, I remind him a lot so that he will know I was not just a sick person. When I look at him, I try to fill my brain with memories. How many more times can I watch the video of him trying to say Anna Karenina? What about when I told him I didn't want ice cream from the ice cream truck, and he hugged me, patted me on the back and said, I hear you, buddy, I hear you?
DETROW: Schlossberg writes about her daughter as well. She ends with this.
KELLY: (Reading) Mostly, I try to live and be with them now. But being in the present is harder than it sounds, so I let the memories come and go. So many of them are from my childhood that I feel as if I'm watching myself and my kids grow up at the same time. Sometimes I trick myself into thinking I'll remember this forever, I'll remember this when I'm dead. Obviously, I won't. But since I don't know what death is like, and there's no one to tell me what comes after it, I'll keep pretending. I will keep trying to remember.
DETROW: Tatiana Schlossberg died today. She was 35. Her essay for The New Yorker is titled "A Battle With My Blood."
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