Nora Ephron left clues that she was sick or that something was wrong. No one was smart enough to notice them. In her most recent book, “I Remember Nothing,” she ends the collection of essays with two lists: What I Won’t Miss, and What I Will Miss. After the lists come the acknowledgments, which ends with “and course, my doctors.” And so this says it all, and no one thought it was peculiar. And now it means so much more. There were two reviews of this book in the New York Times in November 2010, and in neither one did the reviewer wonder why someone would leave these lists, or thank her doctors. I guess we know why now. It starts on page 132:
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What I Won’t Miss
Dry skin
Bad dinners like the one we went to last night
Technology in general
My closet
Washing my hair
Bras
Funerals
Illness everywhere
Polls that show that 32 percent of the American people believe in creationism
Polls
Fox
The collapse of the dollar
Joe Lieberman
Clarence Thomas
Bar mitzvahs
Mammograms
Dead flowers
The sound of the vacuum cleaner
Bills
E-mail. I know I already said it, but I want to emphasize it.
Small print
Panels on Women in Film
Taking off makeup every night
What I Will Miss
My kids
Nick
Spring
Fall
Waffles
The concept of waffles
Bacon
A walk in the park
The idea of a walk in the park
The park
Shakespeare in the Park
The bed
Reading in bed
Fireworks
Laughs
The view out the window
Twinkle lights
Butter
Dinner at home just the two of us
Dinner with friends
Dinner with friends in cities where none of us lives
Paris
Next year in Istanbul
Pride and Prejudice
The Christmas tree
Thanksgiving dinner
One for the table
The dogwood
Taking a bath
Coming over the bridge to Manhattan
Pie