Patton Oswalt Talks About His Wife's Death and Moving Forward
For Patton Oswalt the return to comedy has been a long, hard climb https://t.co/ja0ZJj76QV pic.twitter.com/3TcB5Y8NQZ
- New York Times Arts (@nytimesarts) October 26, 2016
- Michelle McNamara, a 46-year-old true-crime writer, died in her sleep on April 21st. Anxious and with an obsessed determination over her book on the Golden State Killer, she took a Xanax and went to bed after Oswalt, worried for her health, told her to take a full night to sleep. She never woke up.
- Oswalt went about his normal morning routine, checking on his snoring wife after 9am, then discovered her not breathing after 12pm. Six months after her passing, there's yet to be a cause of death, but Oswalt recalls the paramedics suspected a Xanax overdose.
- Oswalt says McNamara's death was the second worst day of his life. The first was having to tell his seven-year old daughter what happened. He said she referenced the film Inside Out a day later, saying "I guess Sadness is doing her job right now."
- Saying he will "never be at 100 percent again," Oswalt talks about finding ways to deal with his grief, including therapy, drinking, reading, and stand up.
- He felt guilty performing stand up after his wife's death, but says it's therapeutic now. His show at the Beacon Theater on November 3rd will spend at least half of the set talking about his grief.
- Oswalt credits McNamara for his comedy style, she encouraged him to be more open and vulnerable.
- Oswalt still struggles with believing his current life is real, saying he wonders if he was the one that died and is currently living a Jacob's Ladder nightmare scenario.
- Oswalt's daughter has kept him together, and they spend every night remembering three things about McNamara. Oswalt says he will finish McNamara's book, working with a researcher and investigator, because she was close to solving the crime. He calls her "a great crime fighter."
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Deepest condolences to Michelle McNamara's family, Patton and their daughter.