January 28, 1979
Dear Laurance
To have the lightning strike twice so soon! You have our profound sympathies.
Your brother's life was nothing if not full; but having just begun to know him personally, I regret the lost opportunity to share in the adventures still not fulfilled. We don't know what the measure of a man's life should be; but when there is still so much more to be done, our own efforts in medical research still have an undoubted meaning: what an absurdity that life should hang on a few minutes interruption of a pump.
I earnestly believe that in a very few years, we will be far less the puppets of such absurdities.
Joshua