A Comedian Is Live-tweeting The Last Days Of Her Father’s Life And It’s Hilariously Beautiful

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For the last few days, Laurie Kilmartin, an Emmy-nominated staff writer for Conan O’Brien’s late-night show on TBS, has been publicly grieving and celebrating the life of her father, Ron Kilmartin. The eighty-three year old Korean War veteran is dying of lung cancer. His family has gathered around him and his daughter, Laurie, a professional comedian, has taken to Twitter to cope with her emotions, to share her memories and generally take some of the piss out of death. She’s been creating a technologically-assisted end-of-life tribute that is as touching as it is funny. Laurie Kilmartin is doing a brave and beautiful thing for her dad.

Rather than mutely grieve her loss, rather than mourn as he slowly slips from his mortal coil, she’s armed herself with the chief tool of her trade and has been working to find perspective, she’s been fighting to find humor and catharsis, as she and her family celebrate her father’s life. With her killer wit she’s not only defying the presence of the long shadow of death, but she’s reminding all of us, people around the world, of the value of this thing we call life. Her defiant attitude is everything.

Here are some of the highlights of Laurie Kilmartin’s twitterfeed. Get ready for the feels. And remember, it’s okay to laugh out loud. She wants you to.

In response to people who were offended or suspicious of her live-tweeting her father’s death, Laurie Martin offered this explanation.

And she bring her whole family in to the act. She also take shots at her mother, a woman who’s watching her husband of fifty-five years leave the earth. No other way to say it, Laurie’s got brass eggs. And is using humor the best way we know how.

It’s important that we learn to live bravely. If we’re lucky, we get to die with dignity. If we’re truly blessed, we’ll have our loving family by our side in our final days. And Ron Kilmartin knows it also helps if you have a daughter as funny as Laurie to help everyone laugh away death for a few more hours and days so you can squeeze out a little more joy from those last minutes. Life goes well with a laugh.

Click here to follow Laurie Kilmartin’s live-tweeting of her father Ron Kilmartin’s passing.