I grew up with Mork and Mindy.

Good Morning, Vietnam.

Mrs. Doubtfire.

How can he be gone?

The man of laughter who died of sadness.

My uncle died this way, too.

Always the clown. Always teasing. Always laughing.

Until the day he got sad.

Really, really sad.

And then killed himself. His last afternoon spent with me. For years I couldn’t forgive him for this. For leaving my house to go to his house to fashion a noose.

For years wondering what I could have said, could have done that summer to have stopped the tide of suicide.

Because how could all this laughter end in tears?

In hindsight, I think my uncle’s funniness cloaked a deeply sensitive spirit. I don’t know why he fell into depression and couldn’t find his way out. I wish I could tell my 23 year old self, “It wasn’t your fault.”

It took me years to make peace with my uncle’s death. And in the end, it wasn’t really the years that did it, Jesus did it. Met me there in my grief and gave me peace.

The Bible says: He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. Revelation 21:4.

We all must die, but how do we truly live?

Do we live for ourselves? Or live for the sake of others?

The thing I loved most about Robin Williams was his tender heart for the troops. Traveling far and wide to make America’s soldiers smile.

What will people say about you once you’re gone?

You have one life to live.

Live it well.