Voices
CANDY
CHANG
HUFFINGTON
06.30-07.07.13
LIFESTYLE
RYAN LASH/COURTESY OF TED
The ‘Art’ of Life and Death
THANKS TO my TEDTalk, over
two million people have watched
me cry. This was the first time I
spoke about Joan in public and
saying her name triggered a rush
of memories — the day she consoled my teenage angst, a conversation about love in a Detroit cafe,
the way she set the table with her
earthy placemats, the satisfaction
in her voice when she talked about
her garden. Her death was sudden.
The “Before I Die” project was
a way for me to make sense of
the aftermath. I avoided thinking about death for most of my
life, in part because I was taught
to avoid it. If you bring up death
out of the blue, people will often
say “don’t go there,” or “it’s too
sad,” or “you don’t need to think
Candy Chang
discusses the
“Before I Die”
project at a
2012 TED
Conference
in Edinburgh,
Scotland.