When I first took notice of Tatiana Schlossberg’s devastating essay in the New Yorker magazine just before Thanksgiving, I was shocked by her announcement that she was dying. The no-nonsense lead − “When you are dying” − gave away the ending to her story, which was confirmed on Dec. 30.
Both in November and now again, Schlossberg became a “trending topic,” which is to say a lot of folks were posting about her, this new tragedy to the Kennedy family, but more than anything, her eloquence in the face of the abyss most of us are terrified by: death.
She is being remembered as a Kennedy scion (Tatiana is a daughter of Caroline Kennedy, and a granddaughter of the late President John F. Kennedy); an environmental journalist and book author; a wife and mother of two; and an outspoken critic of her cousin Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. Health and Human Services secretary whom she described in her essay “as an embarrassment to me and the rest of my immediate family.” (Among his many sins, Schlossberg rightfully accuses RFK Jr. of slashing medical research to harm “millions of cancer survivors, small children, and the elderly.”)
I didn’t know Schlossberg personally, although like many in this country, I often feel as though the Kennedys (that is, except Bobby Jr.) are part of my extended family. They’ve embodied our highest hopes while suffering the most devastating tragedies.
