Sorry, I'm Sad
When her husband was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) in June 2019 and given 6-12 months to live, Kelsie Snow avoided other people's sad stories as a rule, but as time wore on she found herself seeking them out. Snow, a former sports reporter for The Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times and St. Paul Pioneer Press, began writing about her life on her website and learned there is comfort in knowing how others have loved, lost and kept going.
Sorry, I'm Sad chronicles the Snows' story in real-time. From the desperate early days, to the hopefulness of a promising clinical trial, to heartbreaking setbacks and constant grappling with mortality, and Chris' unexpected death in September of 2023, Kelsie, along with others she has met along this path, share stories about grief, loss and the importance of hope.
Sorry, I'm Sad
A Good Death: Ryan Leslie on His Mom’s Use of Medical Assistance in Dying
Over the course of the next two episodes you’ll hear two very different stories about two very different lives. 70-year-old Laurel and 36-year-old Jessie had no connection in life, but they both had progressive, incurable diseases that steadily robbed them of independence and quality of life.
They both also lived in Calgary, and that meant they had access to Alberta Health Care’s Medical Assistance in Dying program, also known as MAiD. Both women, whose lives traveled such different arcs, chose to use MAID.
Today you’ll hear Ryan Leslie tell his mom’s story. Ryan is an on-air NHL host for Sportsnet and on Hockey Night in Canada. His mom, Laurel, who had the chronic lung disease COPD, died in September 2021. Going through the experience of MAID left an indelible impact on Ryan, Laurel’s only child.
Then, in two weeks, Heather Lucier talks about her daughter, Jessie Ravnsborg, who died in November 2019 at the much-too-young age of 36. Heather’s story is, of course, different than Ryan’s. Jessie’s death was out of order. Children are supposed to bury their parents, not the other way around. About 18 months before Jessie died, she was diagnosed with ALS. As is so often the case for ALS patients, Jessie’s deterioration was swift. So, too, was her decision to wring all the love and goodness out of the days she had left and, then, when her quality of life diminished beyond the point when moments of happiness could pierce through the darkness of her disease, she would use MAID.
