Harlan Coben

I mean, I have another really odd picture of them, which gives you maybe an idea of them from, I think it was 1978.

They were at a bar mitzvah for a friend of mine.

It was really hot outside.

So my mother had a little too much to drink and just took her top off.

She's sitting there in her bra.

at a bar mitzvah, and I'm sitting there, I look at the picture, and she's sitting there with this bra on, and my father's next to her, like perfectly wintered tie, like nothing's going on.

Almost like King Charles would be, you know?

Like just very like matter of fact about it.

And that, in a sense, summed up their relationship.

He kind of kept her on the rails.

And so I think it was really hard.

And then not long after that, she started to get sick.

So his death was sudden.

A snap of the fingers, just gone.

That was devastating.

My mother's was prolonged in cancer, and it was hard to watch.

And I don't recommend either, by the way, for the grieving.

I'm sure it was easier on my dad than my mom's death was on her, but for the grieving, it was tough.

So I got to sort of experience both a slow death and a fast death with a parent.

And what do you have from each of them in you today?