Patton Oswalt Wrote A Moving Obituary For His Wife

If you're not in the mood for a bit of a cry, now isn't the time for this post. But, unfortunately, death doesn't come when most convenient, which makes it all that much harder. On April 21, comedian Patton Oswalt's wife, Michelle McNamara, died in her sleep of unknown causes. The true crime writer was 46. In a sweet tribute, a Patton Oswalt penned a moving obituary for Michelle McNamara for Time magazine. If you are wearing eyeliner or mascara, I suggest arranging a quick bathroom visit after the read to make sure there isn't makeup streaming down your face.

In the piece, Oswalt talks about his wife's accomplishments, of which there are many, including her blog TrueCrimeDiary.com, in which she wrote more than 150 chilling stories that should most definitely not be read before bedtime. He also mentioned her work for Los Angeles Magazine, where she wrote about “The Golden State Killer” (a name she coined), who was a perpetrator of the worst unsolved string of homicides in California. LA Mag reported that she was in the process of working on a book about the same subject when she died.

Oswalt also wrote about the reaction to her death: Cops and comedians came to call and pay their respects, while her family "[couldn't] help remember all of the times she made them laugh or comforted them, and they smile and laugh themselves," and how his 7-year-old daughter Alice now has to grow up much faster than she should have to.

Alice also had some wise words about the passing of her mother that Oswalt posted on Twitter and also shared in the obituary.

It's interesting to me (but, actually, really not all that shocking) that a child is so much wiser about death than many adults are. Oswalt talked a little bit about his daughter's wisdom in the obituary saying, "That’s the kind of person Michelle created and helped shape. That was Michelle. That is Michelle."

My thoughts are with the Oswalts as they deal with this personal tragedy. Oswalt put it best when he wrote, "She hasn’t left a void. She’s left a blast crater." Though they likely won't ever be able to fill that empty space left by McNamara, I hope that, in time, the family is able to move through this dark period together.