Episode 357: I Can't Go On; I'll Go On - Anna's Dad

Losing a Child: Always Andy's Mom · Jul 16, 2026 · 47m

There is a line from Samuel Beckett that a friend whispered to Stephen outside the hospital room where his wife Kate was dying.

I can't go on. I'll go on.

It became, as Stephen says in his memoir, a pretty accurate summary of his life after Kate and Anna.

Anna came home from China at seven months old, a charming, sweet, luminously happy little girl who had a gift for drawing people to her. Children would flock to her on the playground, sensing something in her they could not name. She loved music, loved to sing, loved every meal she was ever given. She also had a rare and devastating…