Summary

Epilogue – The story’s epilogue is written in the first-person voice of Lucy Kalanithi, Paul’s wife. She reveals that he died on Monday, March 9th, 2015, and then summarizes the last few weeks of his life: his rapid physical deterioration; his determination to avoid both neural failure in his brain and loss of speech for as long as possible; his determination to have Cady with him as much as he could; and his family’s final, hours-long vigil at his bedside (in the same hospital where he received his diagnosis and where Cady was born) until he finally slipped into unconsciousness and death.

Lucy then suggests that the book is as unfinished as Paul’s life, in spite of his obsessive determination to finish it in his last weeks and days. She describes his determination as part of his mission not just to understand...