bet88 Pat Koch Thaler, Sister to a Famed Mayor, Chose to Die on a Saturday

Updated:2024-12-19 03:26    Views:112

After writing obituaries for a decade, I received a phone call on Tuesday, Nov. 12, that began routinely enough.

slot live22

Name of subject?

“Pat Koch Thaler” — the sister of the former New York City mayor Edward I. Koch, his sounding board and a former dean at New York University.

Day of death? “Saturday.”

The 9th, right?

The answer spooked me: “No, the 16th. And she wants to speak with you first.”

I have interviewed the subjects of dozens of obituaries before their deaths. But I’d never been contacted on behalf of someone who was about to take her own life, much less wanted to talk about it.

After 22 years of fending off cancer, Ms. Thaler had run out of miracles. Twice the disease had gone into remission, only to return. One kidney had been removed. She had been bombarded by radiation, chemotherapy and ablation. Finally, the tumors had been declared inoperable.

“My mother died in agony,” Ms. Thaler recalled. Her mother was 62, misdiagnosed and undergoing an operation to remove her gall bladder when surgeons found her body was riddled with cancer.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.

Among the most prominent names were the former defense secretaries Chuck Hagel, a Republican who served under President Barack Obama; William Cohen, a Republican who served under President Bill Clinton; and William J. Perry, a Democrat who served under Mr. Clinton.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber? Log in.

Want all of The Times? Subscribe.bet88

• to
• bet88
• Pat
• Koch
• Thaler