Comic Laurie Kilmartin Is Live-Tweeting From Her Father's Hospice Room

Healthy Living
Photo: @anylaurie16/Twitter

Anyone who has ever lost a loved one would most likely rank the harrowing experience at the top of their “Worst Moments of My Life” list (trust me, I speak from experience). While tears are typically inevitable, people deal with death in many different ways — everything from uncomfortable fits of laughter to inexplicable mood swings. But comic Laurie Kilmartin’s coping mechanism for dealing with her father’s impending passing especially stands out. Kilmartin, who is currently a writer for "Conan" and was a finalist on "Last Comic Standing," has been live-tweeting the time she is spending with her family while her father is in the last stages of lung cancer in Hospice care. Each set of 140 words that Kilmartin sends out to her thousands of followers are tinged with grief, but still display her trademark wit and sarcasm.

While the unorthodox tactics Kilmartin is using to handle her heartbreak can seem off-putting at first, her honesty and realistic outlook is also refreshing (and at least she has her priorities straight).

Speaking of Mom, the couple has been together for over half a century.

Kilmartin explains her dad's situation to her 7-year-old (with a blatant ulterior motive).

And finds a way to inject a little humor into even the most unpleasant parts of Hospice.

She doesn't forget her father's faults.

But still savors every second they have left together.

Interestingly, Kilmartin isn't the first person to live-tweet the experience of dealing with a dying parent. NPR host Scott Simon shared the intimate experience of his mother's deteriorating in the ICU last year. From watching the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge present Prince George to the world to taking a dig at the almost inedible hospital food, he was possibly the first public persona to cross the threshold of turning dying from a private matter into a widely followed experience. Speaking about grief has been shown to help make us feel better in the face of grave situations, but perhaps tweeting about death could aid not only those facing the loss, but their followers as well. Sure, the five stages of death need to be dealt with individually, but that doesn't mean they need to be handled all alone.