This First Person column is the experience of Jillian Horton, a Winnipeg physician and writer. Her first book, We Are All Perfectly Fine: A Memoir of Love, Medicine and Healing, is a national bestseller. For more information about CBC’s First Person stories, please see this FAQ.

Last week, an obituary went viral, proving that even in the middle of a global pandemic, one life can still resonate.

When a reporter for the L.A. Times came across Eric Sydow’s tender, measured tribute to his late sister Karen, he tweeted it out to his followers. Two days later, it had been viewed more than 10 million